﻿SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 



THE LITERATURE OF FURCRAEA WITH A SYNOPSIS OF 

 THE KNOWN SPECIES.* 



BY J. R. DRUMMOND. 



FuRCRAEA GEMINISPINA, Jacobi. 



The type of this, as Dr. Trelease has remarked, was a single 

 specimen seen at Kew about October, 1865,t by General von 

 Jacobi, which had not flowered, but was otherwise well de- 

 veloped (Versuch, Sep. Abdr. p. 282). Jacobi also referred 

 to this type certain young plants in the Berlin Botanic 

 Garden, which had been received through a Herr Meyerhoff 

 from St. Domingo; and he further stated his belief that the 

 species was identical with the second variety of "i^. tuberosa, 

 Willdenow" {i. e. Agave tuberosa of Sp. PI. cd. 1799,ii. i. 194). 

 Willdenow, however, merely cites the Hortus Kewensis (1789) 

 which gives under Agave two species referable to the modern 

 genus Furcraea, viz. 5, A. iuherosa and 6, A. foetida. No. 6 

 is manifestly intended for the plant described (in 1793) as 

 Furcraea gigantea by ^^entenat, but we do not know whether 



* The following epitome of our present knowledge of the genus Fur- 

 craea has been prepared in connection with an investigation under- 

 taken at Kew by Mr. Drummond, last year, to account for the types 

 of certain species ascribed to the Kew Gardens concerning which I had 

 inquired, and is of such general interest that, with the accompanying 

 illustrations, it is pubjished with the concurrence of Colonel Prain, the 

 Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, who as well as Mr. 

 Drummond has long been interested in the genera Furcraea and 

 Agave. — w. t. 



t For this date and other assistance the writer desires to thank Mr. 

 S. A. Skan of the Kew Herbarium. 



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