*s6 N A T U R A L H I ‘S T^O R Y
but thé above are perhaps more than fufleieQitrto Ibew that the
Gunu-britaris did not denominate places and perfons from this leem-
irigly contemptible ftirub without great propriety: its pecuhar properties
are hot to be wondered at, though numerous; they are indeed
chiefly medicinal, and thofe of other plants are fometimes pnncipally
nutritious ahd domeftic. Nature has differently diftnbuted her bounties
among plants, and placed them together fometimes in great numbers.
The palm-tree, as Strabo feys; has 36© «fes, and the cdfcoa
Or cöker-nut-trée yields wine, bread, milk, oil, fhgar, felt, vine-
ear, tinétures, mns, fpices, thread, needles; Knemetó, cups, diihes,
bafltets, mats, umbrella’s, paper, brooms, ropes, fells, and almolt
all that belong to the r is in g of a fhip' , if we- may believe Fr.
Hèrüahdéz and other authors. Befides this Sorrtbucus aquatths Jeu
paluftris, wé have another fort, which -we call Scau-an-Chz, or
theElder of the wood, fbmé call it the Maiden Elder*. Its ufes
have not been hitherto difcovered to be as various and fdmary as
thofe of the foregoing, but its Wood is more flexile, and will divide
lengthways as perfc&ly almoft as whalebone, and is therefore much
iriecnhouie coveted by joyners. Greenhoufe fhrubs may be preferved in Cornwall
Mfc with lefs erne and attendance than in any part of England, and without
any artificial heat. Myrtles even of the tendered: kind, as the itriped
fmall leaved, the double flowering, and the reft, (all which are greenhoufe
plants in other parts o f England) we keep out: ^ ^ in te r , yet
in the fummer they flower plentifully f . Geraniums and jeflamins ttand
out all the winter, unlefs when the cold is extream, and then they
muft be houfed till the feverity of the weather is over, when they
may out again. In the month of January, lOggg tuberofes in-the
dwelling-houfe at Ludgvan, jonquils and the finall pearl-aloe m
the galden, Were in high bloffom 5 but the general nuldneis ot
the Comifh air cannot be better evidenced than by the great American
aloe *, which bloffomed in the garden of Mr. George Keigwm
o f Motifhole in Mount’s Bay in the year at the writing
o f this1 ftill farvives. This plant is common in hot climates, and,
though it feldom bloffoms, is well known to the learned in tins;
but as this is the firft inftance of its bloflbming in England in the
natural earth, I fhall deferibe and trace it. It was planted in the
natu-ral earth in the year 1724, and having flood thirty-three winters
without the leaft covering, on the 9th of June, 1757, the
flower-ftalk began to emerge from among the middlemoft leaves.
The ftalk was round and taper; and befet with fmall marginal
alternate leaves, above which was the infertion of each branch, as
* Ray’s Hiffefy df Plants, lib. XXI. chap. VII.
and Creation, page. 208.
* Qu. an fambucus humilis Rail.
+ The Phlomis fruticofa lalviae folio latiore et
rotundiore, Toum. (vulgo fage of Jerufafem)
ftands altogether hi natural ground, and yet in its
feafon is covered with flowers— the fame may be
faid of many others.
* Agave, Linnsei.
1 February 1758. .
Fig.
' O m :h‘G O R ^ M W A L L. 327
Fig. XL. c, d, Plate xx:-pages 1 86. It-, fliot above ftve, inches at a
medium in twenty-four hours for the fir ft month, but gradually, left
asvit approached the fummit) ; Qn-tiis i;ift My gfte^jjts. appearance
the top o f the ftalk was fourteen feet from the. ground, in which
flag© of growfbfI‘'glvei inPlète xx., Fig. xxxviii, , Qn the 4th o j
Auguft the principal parts were all formed,
the leaves^fix feet, high ; their fpread eleven feet; circumference of
the ftalk at the top of ?the leaves ftfteen .t e the grouu4
to the under: t&anch , ten
number; they-’extended from:<the ftalk at :.a médium two fbety each
branch fhooting from abovexone tpf the marginal leayes sor appen-
dixes;- at ther-bttrernity ofr'ihch branchwas its- hpnch, of flowers,
which confiftedfoffevenor eight pedmèuli\. onfeach#e4w!?le;there
were from fourteen to> « fortydevem -podsvrféty liker, thft white hilf
pods: the pods on one -branch we diiad the eurioftty to number,
and they amounted in all to two hundred and nineteen;; the bunch
o f flowers on each branch appeared September - jb j yasji»,:^, jFig. xl.
ibid. The corolla,' or, •fyftem of genemtivei
ibid, is of the fisrijral' was of a light-green colour; 0,
is the capfuldj filled with clear wate^i fweet is hony : ; thetopjofthg
capfula is divided into fix petals in the flmpe of ..fingers,; .which
gralp the piftil riling out o f the center o f the oapfiildi furround-
ed with fix filaments e, <?; and on the point .of each i filameitf
-One anthera, covered with the farina^ ^&-ff-'f^ all of ß bright
Naples-yellow colour. . September the fixteenth tho ftalk, with the
flowers on the top, was twenty-one feet fix inches higfohaviflg
jgfown only four inches in height from the fourth o f Anguß ?; the
undermoft branches were now nearly in full bloflom, the -upper
ones more backward; the outmoft leaves erf- the plant »ext .the
ground were a little flaccid and difeoloured, a prelude $o.the approaching
decay; for, as thefe fconces ( jb ionae have calfed . the
flower-branches) fucceflively break forth into weighty bunches qf
rich yellow flowers; thea&entcof fap isffo copfojus,- that tfrqpen-
fpiratory dufts, and the other neceifery veflèls of vegetation,, become
too diftended ever to recover their former tone ; the root ake
(none of the moft robuft) ;by the continual duty of fupplying fuch
quantities of moifture for thé flowers, is worn out, and*fbf*É#Jllf
plant bloflbms but once, («4 if the production was too precious to
be repeated) then languiflies and diese l but itst;dtectyr:feßovK?,and
and commenforate to the time it takes, up in putting, forth its flowers.
On January xq; ' i f ß , about fifteen o f the .under braufAqs
had dropped their feed-pods, the uppe«moft ftill retaining theirs;
the ftalk not much fhrunk, and the. luccufent: leaves next the
ground as freih as three months before; fome.hgve lived twelve
months