AMARYLLIDEZ. 353 
Agave fetida, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. 2, p. 461; Jacq. Ic. Pl. Rar. t. 379. 
Furcrea fetida, Haworth, Synop. Pl. Succ. p. 738. 
Funium pitiferum, Willemet, Herb. Maurit. p. 26. 
Furcrea viridis, Jacobi et Goepp. in Jacobi’s Vers. syst. Ord. Agav. p. 2738. 
_ Mexico?’—Now widely spread in Tropical America, as well as in some parts of the 
Old World, where it is cultivated for the fibre afforded by its leaves. Willemet’s 
specific name pitiferum has been altered by some authors into filiferum; but it is 
clear that he intended the former, as the fibre was called pitt or pitte in Mauritius. 
Hort. Kew. 
6. Furcrea longeva, Karw. et Zucc. in Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xvi. p. 666, t. 48; 
Kunth, Enum. v. p. 839; Jacobi, Vers. syst. Ord. Agav. p. 265; Baker in Gard. Chron. 
n. 8. xi. p. 656; Bot. Mag. t. 5919. 
South Mexico, Tanga, Oaxaca, at an elevation of 10,000 feet (Karwinski) ; Guatz- 
MALA, high mountains (Skinner). Hort. Kew. 
7. Furcrea selloa, K. Koch, Wochenschrift, 1860, p. 22; Jacobi, Vers. syst. 
Ord. Agav. p. 289; Baker in Gard. Chron. n.s. xi. p. 624; Bot. Mag. t. 6148. 
GUATEMALA, Quezaltenango (Warscewicz). Hort. Kew. 
8. Furcrea undulata, Jacobi in Abhandl. Schles. Gesell. 1869, p.170; Baker 
in Gard. Chron. n. s. xi. p. 696; Bot. Mag. 6160. 
Souta Mexico, Chiapas (Ghiesbreghé). Hort. Kew. 
Some of the other species of /urcrea described from cultivated plants of uncertain 
origin may be Mexican. 
(The TaccacE# are a small Order of two genera and about ten species, whereof three 
are endemic in the northern part of South America, and the rest are natives of the Old 
World, two or three of them having a wide range of distribution. | 
Order CXLVI. DIOSCOREACE. 
Dioscoreacee, Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. iii. p. 741. 
Hight genera, comprising upwards of 160 species, are referred to this Order. One 
genus (Lajania), of which about six species are known, is peculiar to the West Indies ; 
and all the other genera, excepting the widely spread Dioscorea, are monotypic or 
ditypic, and restricted to the Old World. 
1. DIOSCOREA. 
Dioscorea, Linn. Gen. Plant. n. 1122; Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. iii. p. 742. 
Of this genus about 150 species have been described; but many of them are imper- 
fectly known. They are generally dispersed in tropical countries, and a few extend to 
temperate regions—more to the southern than to the northern. There is one outlier 
of the genus in the Pyrenees. | 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Bot. Vol. III., February 1884. 22 
