can be of very little service in scientific botany. At any rate, 

 we fail to discover our present Agave among them. It is from 

 the rich collection of succulents in the possession of onr friend 

 William Wilson Saunders, Esq., of Heathfield, Reigate. Its 

 origin is not known, and we can only say it is probably a native 

 of Mexico, a region so rich in species of this genus. It has 

 flowered in the winter season, and now, January, 1S65, the fruit 

 seems fully formed, but at present quite green. 



Descr. Stemless. Leaves singularly spreading, nearly horizon- 

 tally, the lowest ones lying close to the ground, one and a half 

 to two feet long, moderately thick, glaucous, oblong-lanceolate, 

 suddenly terminating in long purple-brown spines, nearly plane 

 or with the spinous margins a little upturned ; the spines dis- 

 tant, from a broad base triangular, dark purple-brown. Scape, 

 in our plant, fourteen feet long, stout in proportion, cylindrical, 

 beset at very short intervals with erect, appressed, subulate 

 scales, which soon become marcescent. ('lusters or fascicles of 

 flowers numerous, subglobose, densely crowded, terminating in 

 a horizontal peduncle, four inches long, its base subtended by a 

 large, ovate, acuminate bract deeply carinated below. Secon- 

 dary fascicles subsessile and bracteolated at the base. Ovary 

 one and a half inch long, green, subterete, but obscurely grooved 

 or six-angled, crowned by the yellow limb of four, nearly erect, 

 acuminated segments. Stamens six, yellow ; f laments equal in 

 length with the perianth, and inserted between the segments. 

 Anthers very large, deep-yellow, versatile. Style half the length 

 of the filaments, terminated by a clavate stigma. Capsule (at 

 present immature) nearly elliptical, crowned by the withered limb 

 of the perianth. 



Pig. 1. Greatly reduced figure of the entire plant. 2. Much reduced figure 

 of a leaf. 3. Reduced figure of a fascicle of flowers, with its peduncle and cari- 

 nated bract at the base. 4. Apex of a leaf : — natural size. 5. Secondary cluster 

 of flowers, — natural size. 6. Transverse section of an ovary, — slightly mag- 

 nified. 



