Tas. 5893. 
AGAVE IxtrLiorpes. 
Native of Mexico? 
Nat. Ord. AMARYLLIDE&.—Tribe AGAVE. 
Genus Acave, Linn.; (Endl. Gen. Plant., p. 181). 
AGAVE irtlioides ; acaulis, foliis ad 30 14-2 ped. longis medio 24-3} poll. 
basi } poll. latis lineari-lanceolatis in apicem pungentem brunpeam 
sensim attenuatis immarginatis, infra medium planis supra medium 
concavis, junioribus intense glaucis, spinis parvis 4-4 poll. distantibus 
falcatis adscendentibus brunneis, scapo 8-10-pedali, bracteis laxis 
erectis, panicule ramis 8-10 patentibus, floribus laxe corymbosis, peri- 
anthii tubo 1 poll. longo viridi segmentis lineari-oblongis obtusis flavo- 
viridibus subequi longis, filamentis robustis, antheris magnis linearibus 
stramineis, stylo robusto staminibus multo breviore, stigmate subdila- 
tato obtuso. 
AGAVE ixtlioides, Ch, Lemaire in Hamburg Garten und Blumenzeit. vol. xxii. 
p- 214 (1866). : 
Agave fourcroydes; Lemaire, I’Illust. Hortic. vol. xi. p. 65 (1864) non 
Jacobi. 
Of all cultivated plants none are more difficult to name 
accurately than the species of Agave, partly because of the 
imperfection of the published descriptions, and more from the 
impossibility of fixing their characters by words. The species 
before us is one that has long been in cultivation at Kew, but 
never flowered till January of the present year, when it threw 
up a scape twelve feet high. It agrees with the meagre 
character of the foliage (all that is described) of 4. ixtlovdes, 
itself a species of confused synonymy, and hardly distinguished 
by words from 4. fourcroydes Jacobi; as which, according to 
Major-General Jacobi, it was first described by Lemaire. In 
other words, according to Jacobi, who is the great authority 
on this genus, this plant was first described by Lemaire as 
A. fourcroydes (LI). Hortic., xi. 65), a name for which Jacobi 
MARCH Ist, 1871. 
