Among the Agaves generally included in the section Littaea 
on account of their cylindrical inflorescences, our species 
belongs to a special group the members of which have 
tubular flowers with recurved segments, as in A. polyacantha, 
€. Koch. Its nearest allies are A. macrantha, ‘Tod. and 
A. chiapensis, Jacobi. All have rather large flowers and 
bracts. But in A. chiapensis the flowers are smaller than 
in A, Warelliana and have a shorter tube; the leaf characters 
also differeven more markedly. Between A. mucrantha, Tod., 
and A. Warelliana there are relatively minor differences, 
especially in the shape of the leaves and their marginal 
teeth, so that it is not impossible that the two may be 
extreme forms of one rather variable species. If this view 
be adopted, Mr. Baker’s name has priority. The. Agave 
which flowered at Lyon in the Pare de la Téte-d’Or in 
1869 and was described as A. chiapensis by Jacobi (Abhandl. 
Schles. Ges. Naturw. Abth, 1870, p. 164) is another form 
of this species and is not the same as the original A. chia- 
pensis described by Jacobi in 1866 (Hamb. Gartenz. 
xxii. 213), 
Description.—Shrub. Rosette acaulescent or very shortly 
caulescent, with about 75 leaves, over 3 ft. high and nearly 
6 ft. broad, emitting a few suckers and, after flowering, 
branching from the axils. Leaves about 28-29 in. long 
and 5-53 in. broad in the middle, lanceolate-spathulate, 
erecto-patent, bright pale green, almost shining, rather stiff 
and hard, at the base about 24-3 in. thick, constricted to 
4 in. or less, above convex or plano-convex, towards the 
middle and the long point a little concave, convex at the 
back, especially at the base; end spine $—# in. long and 
3-2 lin, broad, straight, black-brown, when old ash-grey, 
above flat and broadly channelled to about the middle, 
on the margins decurrent into a narrow horny line which 
almost reaches the base and which is densely beset with 
minute teeth; teeth about $ lin. long and I lin. distant, 
straight or curved. Inflorescence over 15 ft. high. Scape 
robust, over 6 ft. high, green mottled with brown, densely 
covered with numerous empty bracts, all erect, deltoid and 
long acuminate, the lower ones about 11 in., the upper ones 
about 7 in, broad. Spike dense and many-flowered above, 
9 ft. high, and when expanded about 13-14 in. broad; 
a 
