OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 163 



Agave (Littjea) vestita. Leaves very numerous, stiff, straight, 

 ensiform, a foot long or less, by 6 or 8 lines broad, flat above, convex 

 beneath, attenuate to a very pungent brown tip, covered throughout 

 when young with a thin white continuous layer which is at length 

 deciduous, leaving a smooth green surface variegated with scattered 

 round lighter-colored spots, the margin bordered by long gray re- 

 curved threads : flowers sessile in pairs ; ovary and narrowly turbinate 

 tube each 4 lines long, the narrow segments of the perianth 6 lines 

 long: filaments twice as long: capsule broadly oblong, 6 lines long. — 

 On porphyritic ledges near Guadalajara; November, 1889 (n. 2-1-j2). 



Xykis Mexicana. Leaves linear, straight, 3 to G inches long by 

 1 or 2 lines broad, exceeding the sheathing bracts of the culm, which 

 is very slender, terete, flattened above : head globose or ovate, 3 to 5 

 lines long, rather few-flowered, the orbicular bracts greenish brown, 

 becoming nearly black : lateral sepals linear, long-attenuate down- 

 ward, ciliolate above on the nearly wingless keel, equalling the bract ; 

 blade of the petals obovate, 3 lines long : sterile stamens plumose : 

 capsule cuneate-obovate. — Swampy places near Guadalajara ; Dr. 

 E. Palmer^ September, 1886 (n. 445), and C. G. Pringle, November, 

 1888 (n. 1781). Most nearly resembling X. fiexuosa, but differing 

 in its dark-colored heads and longer unguiculate sepals. 



