ENGELMANN NOTES ON AGAVE. 



The plant is one of the smaller of this section ; leaves densely 

 clustered around the base of the stalk, ascending and erect, thick, 

 fleshy, deeply concave, very glaucous, 6-12 inches long, £-2 wide, 

 contracted above the very broad base, which is edged with sharp, 

 straight, pale teeth, wider above the middle and terminated by an 

 unusually long (1-2 inches) and slender, laterally compressed spine 

 marked with a deep narrow groove half-way up ; the hard and 

 horny, dark colored edge of this spine extends down to about the 

 middle of the leaf, bearing the crowded, strong, hooked teeth (2-3 

 lines long) ; below the middle the teeth-bearing margin is herba- 

 ceous. The stalk is, according to Dr. Parry, 4-10 feet high, 1-2 

 inches thick below. The flattened branches of the panicle, almost 

 horizontal below, longest (2-3 inches) in the middle and nearly 

 erect upwards, divide into not very compact clusters of forked 

 pedicels, 2-3 lines in length, the ultimate ones shorter, bearing a 

 profusion of bright yellow flowers. Prismatic ovary a little shorter 

 than the perigon and scarcely contracted at top ; perigon 10-1 1 

 lines long, tube only 1 5-2 lines long and wide, lobes about 9 

 lines long and z\ wide ; filaments inserted at base of lobes, about 

 twice their length ; anthers as long as lobes ; capsule 1 f inches 

 long, 6-7 lines wide, pointed ; seeds 2\ lines in diameter. 



n. Agave Parryi, n.sp.: acaulis ; foliis ascendentibus rectis 

 supra basin dilatatam vix angustatis ovato-lanceolatis versus 

 apicem attenuatis spina valida supra planiuscula medio leviter 

 carinata decurrente terminatis, margine aculeis distantibus mi- 

 noribus rectis sen paulo deflexis armato ; scapo valido brac- 

 teis magnis foliaceis triangularibus integris imbricato ; paniculae 

 ramis robustis horizontalibus seu vix ascendentibus apice flo- 

 res numerosissimos breviter pedicellatos ochroleucos gerenti- 

 bus, ovario prismatico perigonium fere requante, tubo brevi 

 infundibuliformi lobis lineari-oblongis erecto-patulis duplo bre- 

 viore, staminibus siimmo tubo adnatis longe exsertis, stylo saepe 

 demum stamina excedente ; capsula ovata brevissime cuspidata, 

 seminibus majusculis. — A. Americana, 3 ? latifolia, Torr. Bot. 

 Mex. Bound, p. 213, pro Emoryi planta ; A. Mescal, C. Koch, 

 Wochenschr. 1S65, p. 94 (ex Jacobi), and A. crenata, Jacobi, 

 Agav. p. 229, quoad plantam neo-mexicanam. 



Western New Mexico to Northern Arizona, and perhaps 

 eastward to the mountains below El Paso, apparently not south 



