﻿MISSOUKI BOTAXrCAL GARDEN. 



Regcl, following Roemer doubtless —to var. Willemetiana. 

 A modem figure in Revue Horticolc, 1877, p. 234, which pro- 

 fesses to be F. iuherosa, might be any of this group of species. 



The distribution of this group seems to be approximately as 

 follows : — 



(a) F. gigantea, Vent., from Costa Rica to Northern Vene- 

 zuela and again on the cast coast of Brazil to about the 25th 

 south parallel; S. E. Antilles, but doubtfully indigenous; in- 

 land Colombia (probably an introduction). 



(b) F. tuherosa, Ait. fil., Haiti and Santo Domingo; 

 Puerto Rico; Lesser Antilles (doubtfully indigenous). 



(c) F. cuhensis, Vent., Cuba; Yucatan (in cultivation). 

 There is a sj^ecimen in the Kew Herbarium from the De- 



merara Botanic Garden (Jenman no. 3887) marked at Kew 

 "F- gigantea var. Willemetiana" which resembles one of 

 Bovell's Barbados sets, and is probably cultivated iuherosa. 



On the other hand F. gigantea is represented from the 

 French Antilles, but it was brought there in the first place, 

 the writer suspects, by human agency. Even in Colombia, 

 in the south at least, the "Cabuya" has been probably brought 

 from the Isthmus; at Popayaii, above the head waters of the 

 Cauca, it is expressly stated that the Cabuya, though abun- 

 dant, has been planted. The headquarters of the genus lie 

 evidently in the mountains sloping towards the Pacific coast 

 from Oaxaca to Darien, and as pointed out by Mr. Hemsley 

 (Biol. Cent. Amer. Bot. App., p. 272) the Furcraea area ex- 

 tends to the southwards while the Agaves have their maxi- 

 mum development towards North America. 



F. tuherosa as a spontaneous product seems to be restricted 

 to the islands eastwards of Jamaica and north of Tobago (in 

 Jamaica itself the genus seems to be entirely wanting except 

 as an escape). It is probably the "[Aloe] eadem portoricensis 

 foliis non foetidis minusquc rigidis" [i. e. less than in F. gi- 

 gantea] "radice tuberosa, an Aloe americana radice tuberosa, 

 non foetida P. B. Prodr." of the Hortus Bcaumontianus 

 (1690); but it may have been originally endemic in His- 

 paniola. 



Seemann's "tuherosa" from the Isthnms was no doubt 



