DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6095#0025
SICILY AND MALTA. 7
pearance that can be imagined. The
ssower-stems of this noble plant are in ge-
neral betwixt twenty and thirty feet high,
(some of them more) and are covered with
ssowers from top to bottom; which taper
regularly, and form a beautiful kind of py-
ramid, the base or pedestal of which is the
fine spreading leaves of the plant. As this
is esteemed, in northern countries, one of
the greatest curiosities of the vegetable
tribe, we were happy at seeing it in so
great perfection ; much greater, I think,
than I had ever seen it before.
With us, I think, it is vulgarly reckon-
ed, (though I believe falsely) that they only
flower once in a hundred years. Here I
was informed, that, at the latest, they
always blow the sixth year ; but for the
most part the fifth.—As the whole sub-
stance of the plant is carried into the ssem
and the slowers, the leaves begin to de-
cay as soon as the blow is completed, and
B 4. a nu-
pearance that can be imagined. The
ssower-stems of this noble plant are in ge-
neral betwixt twenty and thirty feet high,
(some of them more) and are covered with
ssowers from top to bottom; which taper
regularly, and form a beautiful kind of py-
ramid, the base or pedestal of which is the
fine spreading leaves of the plant. As this
is esteemed, in northern countries, one of
the greatest curiosities of the vegetable
tribe, we were happy at seeing it in so
great perfection ; much greater, I think,
than I had ever seen it before.
With us, I think, it is vulgarly reckon-
ed, (though I believe falsely) that they only
flower once in a hundred years. Here I
was informed, that, at the latest, they
always blow the sixth year ; but for the
most part the fifth.—As the whole sub-
stance of the plant is carried into the ssem
and the slowers, the leaves begin to de-
cay as soon as the blow is completed, and
B 4. a nu-