NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 167 
2. AGAVE ENGELMANNT, N. SP. 
In 1884, shortly before his death, Dr. George Engel- 
mann visited the late Josiah Hoopes, and received from 
him several very small seedling Agaves. One of these, 
which bore the name A. attenuata, var. subdeniata, was 
placed at the Botanical Garden, where it reached appar- 
ently good development, and bloomed and (with artificial 
pollination) fruited in January, 1891, thus affording an 
opportunity for determining its true affinities. As was 
evident even from the leaf characters, it could not prop- 
erly be referred to any form of A. attenuata; and an 
examination of the complete material last winter led to the 
conviction tbat it was an unnamed species, a conclusion 
shared by Mr. Baker, of Kew Gardens, to whom photo- 
graphs and specimens were sent. In connection with a 
reproduction of a photograph showing the habit of the flow- 
ering plant, and a plate of details, the following descrip- 
tion of the species is offered, and I take pleasure in dedi- 
cating it to the memory of its donor, a botanist whose 
writings on the Agaves are classical. 
AGAVE XZNGELMANNI, Trelease, n. sp. A. attenuata, var. subdentata, 
Hort. Hoopes.). —Acaulescent; leaves about 30, in a rosette 3 ft. broad 
and 18 in. high, deep green, transiently somewhat glaucous, rather thin 
and not very rigid, oblanceolate-spatulate, commonly recurved, the upper 
surface concave, 6 to 7 in. wide by about 2 ft. long, reduced to 3 in. wide 
and 14 in. thick near base, acuminate, the brown purple end spine chan- 
neled and decurrent for ashort distance as a very narrow dark margin con- 
necting the small deltoid slightly reflexed teeth, which further down are 
quite distinct; scape about 7 ft. high, the upper two-thirds floriferous; 
panicle narrowly oblong, the short ascending branches densely few 
flowered; perianth yellowish green, about an inch long, eqalling the 
ovary and with funnel shaped tube; style and stamens exserted for 
about 1 in., the former finally double this length; capsules clustered, 
mostly about an inch long; seeds 3x5 mm. and about one-half millimeter 
thick. Native country unknown. — Plate 55, flowering plant, about 
one-twentieth natural size. Plate 56, two leaves representing extremes, 
