THE QUEEN VICTORIA CENTURY PLANT.

(_Agave victoriae-reginae_.)


This beautiful Agave is now in blossom in the garden here, and I am
happy to be able to send you photographs of it. This is the first time
it has ever blossomed in cultivation, and it has never been seen in
flower in a wild state. It is a mature native-grown specimen, dense in
habit, and perfectly semi-spherical in form, and the leaves are arranged
in spiral fashion with as much regularity as those of a screw pine. The
circumference of the plant is 5 ft. 1 in., and it has 268 leaves. Its
flower-stem appeared about the middle of June, grew rather fast till it
was 7 ft. high, then rather slowly till it reached its full development.
The scape is now 10 ft. 4 in. high above the plant, 61/2 in. in
circumference at the base, or 51/4 in. at a foot above the base; from
there it tapers very gradually till near the apex. The flower-spike is
exceedingly dense, and 5 ft. 8 in. long; the lower or naked portion, 4
ft. 8 in. long, is prominently marked by abortive flower buds, with,
near the base, some bristle-like scales 31/2 in. to 4 in. long. The
flowers are regularly arranged in parcels of three, all the three being
equal in size and opening together; they are greenish white in color, 11/2
in. long, or, including the stamens, some 23/4 in. to 3 in. long.

[Illustration: AGAVE VICTORIAE-REGINAE.]

The first flowers opened on August 3, and they have continued to open
in succession, a belt about 3 in. wide opening each day. They remain in
good condition for two days; on the third day the stamens wilt and drop
down, but the pistil remains erect till the fourth day. On the first day