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141. AGAVE saponaria. 



A. saponaria ; acaulis, inermis, glaucescens, rhizomate crasso camoso, foliis 

 teneris lanceolatis acuminatis semiamplexicaulibus, spica simplici capitata, 

 bracteis acuminatis ovario brevioribus. 



Rhizoma ? crassum carnosum. Truncus nullus. Folia tenera, glaucescentia, 

 inermia, lanceolata, subpedalia, apice convoluta, margine cartilagineo-serru- 

 lata, basi semiamplexicaulia sed angustata. Scapus '2-3 pedes altus, teres 

 distanter foliatus ; foliis superioribus marcescentibus, acuminatis, sensim in 

 bracteis ovario brevioribus mutatis. Spica capitata, simplex, 10-12-flora. 

 Flores luridi, odorem debilem spirantes, subringentes ob dorsi sui contra 

 flores superiores pressuram, semisexpartiti ; laciniis ajqualibus, lineari-ob- 

 Iongis, apice concavis ; tubo paululum curvo. Stamina 6, aequalia, medio 

 tubi inserta; filamentis subulatis, rigidis, erectis, lurido-striatis, perianthio 

 duplo longioribus,- antheris linearibus, versatilibus. Ovarium inferum, 

 carnosum, obsolete hexagonum, 3-loculare, polyspermum ; ovulis compressis 

 serie duplici ordinatis. Stylus teres, filamentorum colore, iisque longiore, 

 decurvus ; stigmate capitato trigono pubescente. 



For this new species of Agave I am indebted to James 

 Bateman, Esq. who received it from his friend Mr. Skinner. 

 The latter gentleman, travelling in Peru, found it growing 

 on a sandy plain, and learned that it is used as a soap plant, 

 its thick succulent tap-root possessing the property of form- 

 ing a lather with water. It has dingy purple flowers, and is 

 nearly allied to Agave lurida. 



142. POLYSTACHYA ramulosa. 



V. ramulosa; ebulbis, foliis , scapo paniculato, floribus glaberrimis, 



sepalorum basi conica elongata, labello cuneato trifido apice carnoso mar- 

 gine involuto : lobis acutis intermedio minore, disco piano imberbi. 



A native of Sierra Leone, whence it was imported by 

 Messrs. Loddiges, who flowered it in September, 1838. It 

 is a small green-flowered plant with the habit of Polystachya 

 luteola, but more branched, and with branchlets at the base 

 of its ramifications. The smooth flowers prolonged at the 

 apex (that is to say, at the base of the sepals) into a long- 

 cone, and the wedge-shaped naked lip, distinguish this from 

 the other species previously known. The apparatus connected 

 with the pollen-masses is very remarkable in this plant ; the 

 masses are two waxy bodies obliquely divided half-way into 

 two very unequal lobes, and adhering to a long white wedge- 

 shaped separable process, which has all the appearance of 

 the caudicula of a Vandeous genus, and which is moreover 



