The plant has always been a hardy specimen, and required
little care. Its whole life, now speedily approaching a termination in
the fulfillment of the end of its existence--flowering--has been a
sluggish course. Its growth has been steady and its development
gradual. Occasionally it has thrust out a spiked leaf until, in size,
it became greater than its fellow plants and took on the likeness of
an enormous cabbage which had been arrested in its development and
failed to attain perfection. Early last April its appearance began to
undergo a decided change. Its resemblance to a cabbage lessened, and
it began to look like a giant asparagus plant. On April 12, the great
fleshy leaves, massed together so as to impress the imprint of their
spines upon one another, began to unfold, and a thick, succulent bud
burst up amid the leaves. Slowly the stalk developed from the bud and
assumed gigantic proportions. Green scales appeared in regular
arrangement about the stalk, marking the points from which lateral
branches were to spring. The thick stalk, tender and brittle at first
as new asparagus, became tough and hard enough to resist a knife, and
its surface assumed the gritty character of the leaves of the plant.
The low roof of the hothouse became an obstruction to further growth,
and had to be removed.
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