510 
THE AMERICAN ALOE. 
to have a strong and very disagreeable odour, 
which I can compare with nothing but that of 
decomposing cabbages. They contain also 
a clear liquid, the taste of which is a com- 
pound of sweetness and nauseousness. 
" The flowering stem became visible about 
the ijiiddie of June, resembling in the first 
stages of its progress a giant head of aspa- 
ragus. Its growth was rapid for three-fourths 
of its height, and until the branches became 
developed, when its progress was less marked. 
The first blossoms, those of the lowest and 
least vigorous branches of the panicle, were 
developed in the first week of September ; 
and the apex of the panicle expanded its 
flowers in the first week of October. No par- 
ticular record of its rate of growth was pre- 
served, in consequence of an impression that 
it was merely the common species, whose 
progress has been already often registered. 
The plant had no shelter during the summer 
beyond what was afforded by the situation of 
the garden ; and but some very slight assist- 
ance from a small quantity of decaying leaves 
and grass laid around the tub in which it was 
growing; but it is probable that this slight 
stimulus may account, in some measure, for 
its more rapid growth in its earlier stages, 
than afterwards, when that stimulus became 
exhausted. 
" The following is a more detailed descrip- 
tion of the plant in its flowering condition : 
Stem short, terminated by thick fleshy leaves, 
as in Agave americana. Leaves numerous, 
the central ones erect in the early flowering 
stage, all becoming flaccid and drooping by 
the time of the expansion of the flowers ; 
narrower and more attenuated than those of 
Agave americana ; the largest about four 
feet long by four and a half inches wide, the 
sides nearly parallel to within a foot of the 
apex, then gradually tapering to a point ; 
nearly plain abova, convex beneath ; the 
smaller ones towards the centre about three 
feet long by three inches wide, concave above, 
convex beneath, tapering almost regularly 
from the base to the apex ; the smallest 
gradually passing into bracts. The colour of 
the leaves is a pale glaucous green. Their 
margins are not indented, as seen in Agave 
americana, but are set with small distinct 
chestnut-coloured spines, which project about 
an eighth of an inch (half the size of those of 
Agave americana, on vigorous plants), and 
are usually set at a right angle with the mar- 
gin, but sometimes curved, and pointing back- 
wards or forwards, slender and tapering from 
a broad base, as in the prickles of the dog-* 
rose ; each leaf is terminated by a strong 
dark-brown spine, an inch long. Flowering- 
stem erect, from the centre of the leaves, 
furnished throughout with alternate bracts, 
which become smaller upwards, the lower 
ones gradually passing into leaves. The 
bracts are sessile, half encircling the stem by 
their base, and lengthened out into a narrow 
taper point. The flowering-stem, from its 
base above the insertion of the central leaves, 
is seventeen feet six inches high ; at this base, 
which is the thickest part, one foot three inches 
in diameter, and ten inches in diameter just 
below the flowering branches, the stoutest of 
which are two inches and three-quarters in 
diameter. The lower half of this stem bears 
only a few abortive branches, but the upper half 
is densely panicled. Flower- 
ing branches ascending, 
again alternately branched, 
the secondary branches 
forming dense corymbose 
panicles, of from eighteen 
to twenty-five flowers ; 
lower primary branches 
thin, with fewer flowers, 
the upper ones becoming 
larger and more crowded 
with blossoms ; the apex is 
simply branched. The out- 
lineoftheinflorescencethus 
becomes somewhat club- 
shaped, slightly length- 
ened out at the top. Pe- 
rianth erect,funnel-shaped, 
with an erect limb, yel- 
lowish-green, three inches 
long, including thegermen, 
which it equals in length. 
Sepaline divisions linear- 
lance shaped, petaline divi- 
sions linear-oblong obtuse, 
with broad thin margins, 
otherwise of the substance 
of the sepals, which are 
thick and fleshy. The 
sepaline divisions overlap 
the thin margins of the 
petaline segments in the 
bud state, in which state the former appear 
twice the width of the latter, which is seen 
not to be the case after expansion. Stamens 
protruding beyond the perianth, about its own 
length ; anthers versatile, yellow, an inch 
long. Pistil equalling the perianth in the 
earlier stages of the development of the blos- 
som, subsequently becoming elongated, and 
ultimately equalling the stamens in length." 
