that, where he found 

 the plant, the ground 

 N\a-= covered with snow 

 ami ice ; so that there 

 can be no doubt of its 

 being hardy in the eli- 

 mate o( London. It is 

 o\' such remarkably slow 

 growth in its native ha- 

 bitats, that the inhabi- 

 tants say it flowers only 

 once in 400 years. Fig. 

 '24:0-2., reduced from Ba- 

 ron Karwinski's plate to 

 a scale 1 in. to 12 ft., 

 shows the general ap- 

 pearance of the full- 

 grown plant, with its 

 noble spike of flowers. 

 Fig. 2401. shows the 

 flowers of the natural 

 size. Only seven plants 

 were introduced, one of 

 which was purchased by i 

 the Duke of Devonshire, 

 and the rest sold to 

 Messrs. Loddiges. Price 

 five guineas each. 



F. gigantca Vent., 

 Bot. Mag., t. 2250., is 

 an agave-like plant, 

 with leaves 7 ft. long, 

 and a flower -stem 30 ft. 

 high ; a native of South 

 America : introduced in 

 1690. It flowered in 

 1621, at the Earl of 

 Powis's seat at Wallcot, 

 Shropshire. 



Littcc'n gemmiflora 

 Brig. ; AgaVe gernmi- 

 f!6ra Ker\ Bonapartea 

 ^'uncea Haw., Hart. 

 Journ. Roy. Inst., iii. 

 t. 1.; and out Jig. 2403.; 

 is a native of Peru, in- 

 troduced in 1800; and, 

 though commonly kept 

 iu the ^Teen-house, it is 

 probably as hardy as 

 some kinds of z&cca. 



The plant of which our 



Bgure is a portrait, with 

 a single flower of the 

 natural size, flowered in 



the conferratory of 



Knight's Exotic Nur- 

 sery, Kid;' 1 , Road, in 

 1996. The flower- >< ■,,, 



peared about the 



AltiiOKl'VrUM. 





PART II 



MptoSfeSfc: 



