116 TROPICAL PLANTS 



out the sky; the air is a dead calm, as usual in the deep 

 gorges, and the fires, invisible by day, are seen raging all 

 around, appearing to an inexperienced eye in all but dangerous 

 proximity. The voices of birds and insects being hushed, no- 

 thing is audible but the harsh roar of the rivers, and occa- 

 sionally rising far above it, that of the forest fires. At night 

 we were literally surrounded by them ; some smouldering like 

 the shale-heaps at a colliery, others fitfully bursting forth, 

 whilst others again stalked along with a stfeadily increasing 

 and enlarging flame, shooting out great tongues of fire, which 

 spared nothing as they advanced with irresistible might. At 

 Dorjiling the blaze is visible, and the deadened reports of the 

 bamboos bursting is heard throughout the night; but in the 

 valley, and within a mile of the scene of destruction, the effect 

 is the most grand, being heightened by the glare reflected from 

 the masses of mist which hover above." * 



The aloes form the strongest contrast to the airy lightness of 

 the grasses, by the stately repose and strength of their thick, 

 fleshy, and inflexible leaves. They generally stand solitary in 

 the parched plains, and impart a peculiarly austere or melan- 

 choly character to the landscape. The real aloes are chiefly 

 African, but the American yuccas and agaves have a similar 

 physiognomical character. The Agave mnericana, the usual 

 ornament of our hot-houses, bears on a short and massive stem 

 a tuft of fleshy leaves, sometimes no less than ten feet long, 

 fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick ! After many 

 years a flower-stalk twenty feet high shoots forth in a few 

 weeks from the heart of the plant, expanding like a rich can-| 

 delabrum, and clustered with several thousands of greenish | 

 yellow aromatic flowers. But a rapid decline succeeds thisj 

 brilliant efflorescence, for it is soon followed by the death ol 

 the exhausted plant. 



In Mexico, where the agave is indigenous, and whence it 

 has found its way to Spain and Italy, it is reckoned one of th( 

 most valuable productions of Nature. At the time when tlu 

 flower-stalk is beginning to sprout, the heart of the plant i^ 

 cut out, and the juice, which otherwise would have nourislun 

 the blossom, collects in the hollow. About three pounds exud 



* "Ilimalnyan JoimiaLs," vol. i. p. 146. 



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