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MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



writer cannot discover how the name originated, though it is 

 quite Ukely that it refers to the Agave vivipara of Willdenow. 

 Linnaeus' "A. vivipara," if we exclude certain erroneous 

 synonyms, was based on Casper Commelyn's* ''Aloe poly- 

 gona" which that author himself identified with Hunting's 

 "minor" and regarded as quite different from Hermann's 

 "sobolifera " ; from the figure it was clearly an Eu-Agave of the 

 ''Keratto" type. 



Miller's Agave vivipara has a different history. Up to the 

 6th edition (1752) of the Gardener's Dictionary he did not 

 distinguish Agave from Aloe, and his Aloe no. 7 is "Aloe 

 americana sobolifera" of Hermann. In the 7th edition 

 Agave was separated, but without the use of Linnaean 

 binomials. Under the 5th kind, the ''Childing Aloe," 

 Hermann's "sobolifera" is cited, but the description in 

 the text refers manifestly to a species of Furcraea, and 

 the writer thinks there can be little doubt that the plant 

 intended was the F. undulata of Jacobi, or a closely allied 

 species. The 8th edition, which is that most usually quoted, 

 simply repeats under "A. vivipara" this account given 

 in the seventh. In the 1st edition (1789) of the Hortus 

 Kewensis, Linnaeus (Sp. Plant.) and Miller's 1st edition are 

 cited, and it is stated that Philip Miller had the plant in 

 cultivation [at Chelsea] in 1731. In the second edition 

 (1811) the synonymy is expanded, and among others Will- 

 denow, whose specimen was a Furcraea, is quoted, but the 

 plant itself is not now represented in the Garden unless by 

 examples since referred to F, undulata, Jacobi or pubescens, 

 Baker (non Todaro). The "A. vivipara" now at Kew, as 

 already stated, is a modern importation from the East Indies 

 and is Agave Cantala, Roxb., as is likewise a dried specimen 

 in the Herbarium from the Philippines. 



F. Watsoniana, Hort. Sander, ex script, anon, in Gard. 

 Chron. 1898, i. 243. [x] 

 This name appears first in an account of a Horticultural 

 Exhibition at Ghent in 1898, and the illustration leaves no 



* Praeludia (1703) p. 65. fig. 15. 



