it flowered for the first time in the Garden of the Duke 
of Litta, at Lainate, near Milan. That specimen had a 
caudex 38 feet high, and 7 inches thick; the leaves were 
3 feet long; the flower-stem 24 feet high; and the 
number of flowers one thousand four hundred and eighty- 
two. The plant from which the annexed drawing was 
made blossomed in the Nursery of Mr. Joseph Knight, 
in November 1826: the stem was 14 feet high, and the 
number of flowers eight hundred and forty-six. In the 
Gardens both of this country and of the continent, it was, 
before flowering, confounded with Buonapartea juncea, a 
totally different plant, resembling this in nothing but the 
narrowness of its leaves, which are otherwise so different, 
that no person who possessed the slightest acquaintance 
with the natural affinities of plants could have fallen into 
the mistake. But at that time Botany was too often 
mere empiricism,—a stigma from which it has not yet 
recovered in this country. The Botanist of artificial 
arrangements could do nothing without his stamens and 
styles: but for the student of nature, no better evidence 
upon this plant than the leaves afford would have been 
desired, to determine whether or not it was a Buona- 
partea. 
By. Signor Tagliabue, who had the care of the Duke 
of Litta’s plant, it was found, that if the central bud 
of the stem were seared with a hot iron, a brood of 
young plants would be produced round the base; and 
accordingly such was the method he practised in propa~ 
gating it. 
With respect to the genus of this plant, we feel our- 
selves fully justified in adopting the opinion of Mr. Ker, 
that it is a mere Agave, upon the ground that it possesses 
no character either of fructification or vegetation, by which 
it can be essentially distinguished; unless the revolute 
limb of the perianthium be so considered ; upon which, 
however, little value is to be placed. Indeed, with this 
exception, it agrees in every particular with the genuine 
Agaves. “With regard to habit, we should have presumed - 
that no one would suppose that rather vague, but sometimes 
important quality, to depend upon a difference in the 
breadth of the leaves of two plants; and yet, except in 
this particular, we know of nothing which can have led 
