A'ott's and Gleanings. 375 



considered fifty-six years old when it flowered. It was planted in the flower- 

 garden, where it never had any protection except by being screened from the 

 north by shrubbery behind. A daily journal was kept by tlie gardener of its 

 progress. 



" During the first ten or twelve days it grew from six to seven inches in 

 twenty-four hours ; afterwards it grew slower. On the ist of July, the flower- 

 stem was eleven feet high ; and by many it was at that time thought to resemble 

 a gigantic asparagus. On the 19th of July, the stem was sixteen teet in height ; 

 and from that period, at about four feet below the top, lateral buds began to make 

 their appearance, which, as the stem grew, formed the peduncles on which the 

 clusters of flowers expanded.' On the ist of August, the flower-stalk was nine- 

 teen feet high, when there were thirteen lateral and alternate shoots thrown 

 out. Aug. 15, there were twenty-two peduncles put forth, diflfering in length 

 in proportion to their age ; the lower ones measuring two feet six inches in 

 length, and bearing on their extremities numerous clusters of flower-buds, 

 these subdividing, and giving space for each individual flower, and measuring 

 across the clusters from fourteen to eighteen inches. At this time, the height 

 of stem was twenty-two feet six inches. On the 7th of September, it attained 

 its extreme height of twenty-five feet, and the number of peduncles was thirty- 

 four, besides a cluster of flower-buds on the top of the stem. The first flower- 

 buds began to expand on the 28th of September, and on the loth of October 

 the lowermost clusters were in great perfection, and the number on the whole 

 plant was five thousand and eighty-eight, of the color of sulphur, and about five 

 inches in length. The flowers dropped abundance of juice resembling the taste 

 of honey, especially from about nine in the morning until noon. Bees came by 

 myriads, and feasted themselves on the fluid. The gardener put vessels beneath 

 to receive it as it dropped from the flowers, and filled six soda-water bottles with 

 it ; which, being corked a few days, was found to be an excellent cordial. But 

 after awhile it fermented, became acid, and acquired an unpleasant odor. Dur- 

 ing October and November, the stately appearance of the plant, with its grace- 

 fully-curved branches expanding like candelabras, and sustaining such a number 

 of erect blossoms and buds, the flowers beautifully succeeding each other, pre- 

 sented to the eye a spectacle highly gratifying. The upper blossoms were in 

 perfection as late as the 24th of December, when a frost terminated the beauty 

 of a plant that will long live in the recollection of its numerous visitors, which 

 amounted to nearly eight thousand. During its progress towards flowering, a 

 temporary roof of glass was erected to protect it from the weather, and under- 

 neath, a flight of steps to the platform, twelve feet from the ground, which enabled 

 the visitor to approach the lowermost flowers. T. Symons, 



'' Gardener for Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart 



" Clowance, Cornwall, England, February, 1838." 



