﻿LITERATURE OF FURCRAEA WITH SYNOPSIS OF SPECIES. 51 



the cause being doubtless that it wants a moister atmosphere 

 than is usually accorded to the Agaveae, as known xerophytcs, 

 in our houses; and the same applies, though not quite so fully, 

 to the real tuber osa of the Hortus Kewensis. If ''inermis" 

 (Bot. Mag. 6543) was the plant collected in the mountains 

 south of the city of Mexico by Repper, it would be accus- 

 tomed to a very different climate from the coasts of the 

 Isthmus and of South America, but it seems identical with a 

 plant of Fendler's (no. 1548 in Hb. Kew.) from Tovar in the 

 interior of Venezuela. 



It follows from the above that "F. Commelyni," both of 

 Kunth and of Baker, must be dropped altogether, and when 

 the so-called "var. inermis of cubensis" can be properly de- 

 scribed a distinctive name must be found for it. The "cu- 

 bensis'' contemplated in Bot. Mag. 6543 was not Jacquin's 

 plant at all, but one of Haworth's creations (for which see 

 the Synonymy below). In the AmaryUideae Baker cites the 

 type from Goodenough's Herbarium of F. tuberosa, Ait. fil. 

 for his ''gigantea" (p. 199), and distinguishes "gigantea" by 

 the trunk reaching 3-4 feet in length, so that his "giganiea" 

 must be taken as in part at least equal to Alton's tuberosa, 

 though in part the true no. 18 of Commelyn. His "cuben- 

 sis" similarly is in part, by the description, Jacquin's Agave 

 citbensis, but the leaf is manifestly rather that of F. Selloa, 

 specimens of which are often marked in gardens "F. cuben- 

 sis. " Mr. Baker says distinctly that he had no reliable spec- 

 imens of tuberosa, and took his description from Jacobi and 

 Hasskarl (Retzia, ii. p. 16, d. 1856) ; but Hasskarl's descrip- 

 tion was from a plant received from Sydney which flowered 

 at Buitenzorg, and was evidently F. gigantea. Vent. The 

 "tuberosa" of Salm-Dyck and (in part) of Jacobi will be con- 

 sidered further under F. spinosa. 



The writer would have liked to give complete descriptions 

 of each of the species in this group, but hesitates to attempt 

 this without full grown living specimens before him. For 

 the following provisional description of the Antigua plant he 

 is largely indebted to Mr. Barber's notes and photographs 

 already mentioned. By kind permission of the Director of 

 the Royal Gardens certain of these photographs, and others 



