> n 



\ 



274 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



Agave rigida. 



Agave rigida , said by Hawortli to have been growing at Kew 

 in 1812, and by Miller to liave been abundantly represented 

 in British gardens in 1759, is identified by the latter with the 

 narrow-leaved Vera Cruz aloe of his earlier editions, in which 

 it appears as no. 3, ^'Aloc, anierlcana ex Vera Cruce, foliis 

 angustioribus minus glaucis H. Beaum./' and as such is 

 known to have existed in Great Britain at about the time 

 when the first edition of his Dictionary was published (1731).* 

 Haworth dates the cultivation of his Agave angiisHfolia [in 

 England?] from before 1790, but without details. 



Neither ^Miller's rigida nor Haworth's angustifolia can be 

 brought into agreement with any of the few Agaves that had 

 been noticed by Linnaeus in the first edition of his Species 

 Plantarum (1753). The elder Alton, f instead of adopting 

 Miller's own binomial designation of it, called the broad- 

 leaved Vera Cruz aloe Agave lurida a foliis latioribus, and 

 under it placed what he took for Miller's ^1. rigida as A. lurida 

 )Q foliis angustioribus, — without remarking that the latter 

 diffcTs from his diagnosis of the species: ^'subcaulescens, fohis 

 dentato spinosis.'' WilldenowJ made the same differentia- 

 tion of broad and narrow forms, though he did not quote the 

 Miller synonym of the latter. The younger Aiton§ con- 



w 



* This information is derived from a copy of the sixth edition in the 

 Sturtcvant library at the Missouri Botanical Garden^ which is inscribed 

 as having been presented by the author in 1753 to James Justice (one of 

 the subscribers "whose names appear in the first edition), who marked this 

 copy in ink so as to show the plants *' cultivated by Mr, James Justice in 



his gardens at Creighton from anno 1726 to anno 1738/' — It may be added 



that all but two of the American aloes of the sixth edition (''Aloe americana 



minor Munt." and ''Aloe americana ex Vera Crucc, foliis latioribus & 



glaucis 11. 11.") are so marked. 



That the narrow-leaved Vera Cruz aloe was also cultivated at Chelsea, 



at about this time, is indicated by Rand, who, except for the problematic 



" Aloe americana folio viridi serrato " and the broader-leaved Vera Cruz 



aloe, lists all of the American forms of Miller and Justice and adds the 



'* Aloe americana, tuberosa, minor, spinosa, Par. Bat. Prod." [Furcraea 



tuherosa]y which Miller took up twenty years later, when his ''Aloo 



americana folio viridi serrato" was dropped from the Dictionary. (Rand, 



Hort. Med. Chels. Index. 11.-1730). 



t Hort. Kew. 1 : 472. (1789). | Sp. Plant. 2 : 194. (1799). 



i Hort. Kew. 2 ed. 2 : 302. (1811), 



^ 



J 



