June 7. 
Extracts from the Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 563 
had been obtained from the Cape of Good Hope. One of the plants 
flowered in the fifth year after their first appearance. The height 
of the flower-stem was twenty-five feet. Although the flowers were 
apparently perfect, no seeds were produced. After the flowers had 
fallen, a multitude of small bulbs were produced on the branches. 
In another plant, which subsequently flowered, the stem attained 
the height of forty-four feet, with a circumference of two feet ten 
inches near the base. Those of the other = varied from twenty- 
four to twenty-nine feet. 
The species proves to be identical with the Agave cubensis, a plant 
discovered by Jacquin in the island of Cuba. It belongs to Ventenat’s 
Fourcroya, a group of species distinguished from the normal Agaves 
by their dilated filaments, and by the thickened base of the style. 
A period of from five to seven years elapses before the plants pro- 
duce their flower-stems. 
The disposition to produce bulbs in the species of this genus 
appears to be influenced a good deal by the nature of the soil and 
climate. 
Mr. Royle has remarked of Agave vivipara in India, that in rich 
soils the plant invariably produced bulbs but no seeds, while a poor 
soil and dry climate had the contrary effect. These bulbs retain 
their vitality for a very long time and under almost any circum- 
stances, so that the plants are easily transported from one country 
to another; which circumstance, together with the facility with 
which they multiply and become naturalized, renders it often diffi- 
cult to trace the species to their original localities. Several bulbs 
of Agave cubensis, which had been nearly two years in Colonel 
Sykes’s Herbarium, grew on being planted in the earth. 
A Portrait of Edward Forster, Esq. V.P. and Treasurer of the So- 
ciety, by Mr. Eddis, was presented by the following Fellows : 
Richard Taylor, Esq., Under-Sec. L.S. | William Borrer, Esq. 
Francis Boott, M.D. Sec. L.S. George Bentham, Esq. 
N. B. Ward, Esq. A. B. Lambert, Esq. V.P.L.S. 
4p2 
