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MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



Maguey. Jacquin's Cuban plant is Furcraea cubensis of Ven- 

 tenat, and is not known to occur anywhere near Mexico 

 proper; J. N. Rose (Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb, v.) and others 

 have shown that the pulque is obtained from different species 

 of Eu-Agave, largely from A. atrovirens, Karwinski, but not 

 from A. americana, or "mexicana^\ and further that the 

 pulque-producing species are perfectly distinct from those 

 from which in practice fiber is extracted. In the Supple- 

 ment of 1810, Poiret (under Furcraea as a section of Agave) 

 redescribed "Agave mexicana, Lamarck," (which by later 

 usage would be "A. mexicana, Hort. Par. ex Lamarck") 

 omitting the original synonymy, but ascribing to the tyye 

 Jacquin's Agave cubensis, which Lamarck himself restricted 

 to variety /3. Poiret at the same time added as a synonym 

 Agave odorata, Persoon,— a name wrongly coined for the 

 Cuban plant of Jacquin. If we set aside Lamarck's syn- 

 onym, and fall back for his type (for which only could the 

 name "mexicana" be retained in any case) on the actual 

 Garden plant, which was very likely, though proof is impos- 

 sible, equivalent to the Agave Vera Cruz of Miller, then 

 "Vera Cruz" has at least a dozen years' priority, and was 

 moreover supported by an adequate description and correct 

 synonymy. If on the other hand we exclude the original 

 "mexicana" of Lamarck as being simply Morison's imaginary 

 species, we are left with A. mexicana, Poiret (1810) (which 

 is A. mexicana, Lamarck in part only), and that is merely a 

 belated synonym of Furcraea cubensis. Vent. (1793), which 

 is Agave cubensis, Jacquin intact, but duly transferred to the 

 genus Furcraea. T. Moore, in Gard. Chron. 1879 (pp. 583 & 

 614), revived "mexicana" for an Eu-Agave, which, though 

 not certainly identified, may have been a good species; but 

 in view of the ambiguous origin and confused treatment of 

 the name, its final disappearance from among the Agaveae 

 is greatly to be recommended. 



odorata, Persoon Syn. i. 380 = Furcraea cubensis, Ven- 



(1805). tenat. 

 spinosa, Steudol Nom. (ed. = Furcraea spinosa, 0. Tar- 



2) p. 37 (1840). gioni-Tozzetti (1808). 



