AGAVES OF THE UNITED STATES. 55 
Tresco Abbey, Isles of Scilly, in 1875, were still living in 
1877. One flowered in 1876. This had been damaged and 
had lost its central spike by being overgrown by a large 
Fuchsia. It afterwards threw up three small spikes from 
the axils of its lower leaves. 
Other cases* of lateral inflorescence are noted. Dr. 
Goeppert in Regel’s Gartenflora,t describes some interesting 
ones. A large Agave (in Botanical Garden of Léwen ) pro- 
duced a large terminal inflorescence, and in the following 
year five lateral ones, and finally in the third year an extra- 
ordinary number of flowering stems, some of them bearing 
only one flower. He further states that when the French 
landed in 1830 at Sidi Ferruh, they found the neighbor- 
hood of Algiers thickly studded with Agaves. In the sum- 
mer of 1831, not one of these plants bloomed, and it having 
been determined to form a camp many of the soldiers 
amused themselves by beheading the Agaves. In 1832 all 
these multilated Agaves threw up flower spikes, and more 
than fifteen hundred were crowned with flowers at one time, 
affording a magnificent spectacle. When lateral flowering 
occurs, it often seems to be the result of an injury to the 
central axis which sends its strength into a side bud, making 
it in its turn a terminal bud. 
The propagation of the Agaves is easy and rapid. Seeds 
are produced in great quantities and, under favoring con- 
ditions, readily germinate. The cotyledon is long and 
narrow and bears the seed-coat at its apex until fully 
matured. (Plate 63, Figs. 2, 3, 4.) | 
Many species while quite young also produce an abun- 
dance of suckers or offsets which frequently form a circle of 
progeny around the parent plant. In the Death Valley 
Expedition, near Mountain Springs, in the lower part of the 
pifion belt, Charleston Mountains, Nevada, a ‘*‘ tuft of A. 
* Lachaume, Revue Hort. 1876, 182; Gard. Chron. May, 1876, 696; S. 
B. Parish, Erythaea, 1893, 44; Gard. Chron. 1883, 370. 
¢ Vol. xxvii. 1878, 307. Gard. Chron., Jan., 1879, 50. 
