46 ERYTHEA. 
the center of a cluster of its progeny of various ages, ready 
successively to take its place. 
An Agave growing in the grounds of 8. E. A. Palmer, at 
San Bernardino, to which my attention was lately called, 
showed a curious departure from the normal habit of the 
genus. This plant, a very large one which will flower within 
a few years, had thrown out an offshoot, which instead of 
producing a new plant, had lengthened up into a slender 
scape about three feet high, and two or three times divided 
atthe summit. Larlier in the season it had flowered sparely, 
and then bore four capsules, still unripe, but with well 
formed ovules. 
The inflorescence of Agave is terminal, the scape being a 
prolongation of the axis. In the case here noted it was 
lateral. Yet the distinction is really one of time, since the 
axillary bud of the parent becomes the terminal one of the 
young plant, and in the course of years, when sufficient 
strength has been accumulated for the purpose, will be pro- 
longed into a flowering scape. In this instance the vigor of 
the parent was sufficient to produce the result at once. 
2. Nature of the petiolar glands in ARMENIACA VULGARIS. 
THE petiole of the apricot is beset with small pro- 
tuberances, a line or two high, irregularly distant, and 
situated along the edges of the slightly channeled upper 
surface. They do not appear to produce any secretion, 
although glandular at the apex. Frequently, especially in 
some varieties, their organs become more or less lamillate, 
not seldom developing into regular lanceolate leaflets. The 
largest I have noted were a quarter of an inch long. Two 
leaflets, usually opposite, on the same petiole are not un- 
common, but I have not been able to find a greater number. 
It is always the glands near, and usually these next to the 
blade in which this transformation takes place. 
From their position on the petiole and their occasional 
foliar development, these stalked glands may be considered 
as representing the petiolules of reduced leaflets. If this 
