SAGO. 171 



was larger at its first introduction than such 

 as are usually brought from abroad, perhaps 

 two or three feet in the diameter of the cir- 

 cle formed by the expanded leaves ; that 

 diameter is now ten or twelve feet. Sup- 

 posing it therefore to have been one of the 

 very first introduced, it has grown much 

 more rapidly than usual, for there are few to 

 be seen in England, even the oldest, that 

 are half so large. 



" The stem is about two feet in height, and 

 nine or ten inches in diameter. Thunberg 

 describes the same as rising in Japan to the 

 height of six feet or more, with nearly the 

 above-mentioned diameter. Its surface is 

 brown, and very scaly, with the remains of 

 old leaf-stalks. A single circle of about 

 forty evergreen pinnate leaves crowns the 

 summit, forming a magnificent basin, whose 

 margin measures ten or twelve feet across, 

 and five or six feet in height above the level 

 of the bark bed of the stove. On mounting 

 a ladder, we beheld in the bottom of this 

 verdant and shining amphitheatre a circular 

 cluster, perhaps eighteen inches wide, of 

 about an hundred orange-coloured downy 

 oval fruits, intermingled with innumerable 

 palmate, pale brown, thick and woolly leaves 



