3-017-033 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fourcroya Longaeva, a species of agave, flowering in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent's Park, 1864. 'There have been two plants of what is generally called agave, and sometimes American aloe, growing in the Regent's Park Botanic Gardens for twenty years past. They were raised from a packet of seeds received from Mexico...One of the two plants of Agave fourcroya, to which we now refer, showed its flower spike in March of this year. On the 23rd of April it was 9ft. 3in. high; on the 13th of May it was 14ft. high; on the 19th of May the first flower opened; and by the 27th of May it had attained its greatest beauty, with a total height of 15 ft.; its rate of daily growth varying from 1in. to 8 in., being on the average about 3in. a day. This plant will, in all probability, die immediately after flowering, as is the case with the common Agave Americana. In its native country it is said to attain the height of 70 ft.; but it has never been known to flower in England, or, perhaps, in Europe, before now. An Illustration of this rare botanical phenomenon has, therefore, been sketched and engraved for our pages'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.