PAPERS ON BOTANY 109 
‘ PRECOCITY IN A FURCRAEA 
WiviiAM Trevnase, UNiversity or ILLINOIS 
A number of cases are known in which seeds germinate in the 
fruit, either normally as in the mangrove, or exceptionally as 
in watermelon and citrus fruits. With these phenomena are 
connected, though not very logically, the many cases of bulbil 
production in flower-clusters,—often of unlike morphological 
character, such as Poa, Polygonum, Allium, etce., offer. In a 
way comparable with these, are the cases of flowering precocity 
on suckers, offsets, etc., of such monocarpic plants as Agave 
and /ureraea, where these diminutive derivatives of a mature 
plant flower when it does.* 
Unlike Agave, the related genus /ureraea does not fruit as a 
general thing, but is propagated by bulbils that accompany or 
follow the flowers, as in the cases already referred to. Com- 
monly, these bulbils fall from the parent stock when they have 
reached what may be considered normal development, and it 
is by their use that many of the Furcraeas, like the related 
Sisal Agaves, are propagated commercially. 
To my observant correspondent Mr. L. J. K. Brace, of 
Nassau, I owe knowledge of a very striking and exceptional 
illustration of sexual maturity of Furcraea bulbils concur- 
rently with the mother plant, which may be compared in its 
physiological meaning with the concurrent flowering of offsets 
in this and other genera. The case is that of a small plant of 
Furcraea tuberosa obtained from Mr. Joseph Chamberlain’s 
estate on the island of Andros, and supposedly derived origi- 
nally from Kew. 
When already in pole and about to flower, the scape of this 
plant was broken over by a wind storm, and in this position, 
still connected with the rest of the plant, it went through the 
usual process of producing unfruitful flowers and abundant 
bulbils. The unusual part of its history is that many of these 
bulbils, remaining attached to the mother plant, and without 
*Trelease, Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg. II. Suppl. 3: 909. (Furcraea). 
