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MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



a horn to the intervening crescent-shaped indentation, but 

 the breadth of the indentation varies widely, and sometimes, 

 in the young state especially, the space which should inter- 

 vene between adjacent prickles is suppressed more or less 

 completely so that the bases of the prickles coalesce or ap- 

 proach each other closely; as Commclyn puts it in describing 

 the leaves '' eorum margines spinis viridibus nullo servato 

 ordine armantur. " 



It is not so clear what is meant by the initial character 

 "Radicem habet haec Aloe tuberosam una cum fibris rubi- 

 cundam . . .'^^^ From the corresponding part of the descrip- 

 tion (Cap. xviii.) of ''Aloe americana viridi rigidissimo et foe- 

 tido folio piet dicta indigenis. Kiggelarii Horf. Beaum." it 

 would seem as if the actual roots were "tuberous," but this 

 is not borne out by the figures; and from Miller's text it ap- 

 pears that in his time, the ''tuberous root" of the old authors 

 was understood to have referred to the true stem or caudex. 

 On tlio other hand Tussac, who had many opportunities for 

 studying the plant which he deals with as Furcraea gigantea 

 (Fl. des Antilles, 1818, vol. ii. pp. 101-103) in the living state in 

 S. Domingo, says that it has "un faisceau de racines en partie 

 tubereuses et en partie fibreuses." His description plainly 

 indicates F. tuherosa, Alton: the plant grew "wild" in several 

 cantons of the colony, and produced the "filasse qu'un nomme 

 pitte;" but Redoute's illustrations which accompany the text 

 are exactly copied from nos. 126 and 12(3 (bis) of the Plantes 

 Grasses (1799) to which is appended a description of F. gi- 

 gantea taken, as De Candolle was careful to explain, from 

 Ventenat. This figure differs materially from Redoute's no. 

 i76 in vol. viii. of the "Liliacees," also styled F. giganlea, 

 which agrees, though not perfectly, with Jacquin's colored 

 figure of Agave foetida in Ic. PI. Rar. ii. t. 379, and his descrip- 

 tion in the Collectanea, ii. 312. In all these figures, as in 

 Commelyn's no. 18, the leaf-edges are devoid of prickles, 

 whereas Ventenat (Bull, de la Soc. Philomatique, no. 28 

 Vendemiaire, an 2 de la R6p._0ct. 1. 1793, republished in 

 1796 at pp. 54-60 of Usteri, Annalen, vol. xix) gives the 

 leaves of F. gigantm as "dentato-spinosa, dentibus planis, 

 raris, remotis, rubicundis. " 



