STANDLEY — TREES ATnTD SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 105 



12. AMARYLLIDACEAE. Amaryllis Family.^ 

 (Contributed by Dr. William Trelease.) 



Plants usually herbs, often from bulbs as in the Liliaceae, from which they 

 differ chiefly in their inferior ovary ; in the warmer parts of America repre- 

 sented by the following monocarpic genera, some species of which produce a 

 trunk, while the flower clusters of all are borne on more or less woody stalks 

 that are sometimes tall and much branched. 

 Perianth segments distinct; filaments swollen at base; style base dilated and 



3-angled ; seed not lifted from the soil in germination 1, FURCRAEA. 



Perianth more or less tubular at base; filaments and style not swollen; seed 



raised on the cotyledon in germination 2. AGAVE. 



1. FURCRAEA Vent. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1: 65. 1793. 



References: J. G. Baker, Handbook of the Amaryllideae 198-203. 1888; 

 Trelease, Observations on Furcraea, Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg II. Suppl. 3: 

 905-916. pi. 35-4S. 1910; Drummond, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 18: 2.5-75. pi. 1-4. 1907. 



The name is often -written Fourcroya (Spreng. 1817.) or Fnrcroea (Haw. 

 1819). 



The leaves contain an excellent fiber resembling Sisal hemp, and variously 

 called " pita " or " cabulla," but this is little exploited except for the Mauritius 

 hemp, derived from the Brazilian F. gigantea. 



Leaves denticulate but never toothed, finely striate-ridged. Leaves over 1 meter 

 long ; panicle very large. Serrulatae. 



Trunk tall (15 meters). Leaves concave and rather stiff 1. E. longaeva. 



Trunk moderate (1 to 2 meters tall). 



Leaves rather concave, long (2 meters), often recurved 2. F. roezlii. 



I.ieaves rather flat, short and stiff, very glaucous. 



Leaves short, 50 to 60 cm. long ; flowers 4 cm. long 3. F. beding'hausi. 



Leaves twice as long ; flowers 5 to 6 cm. long 4. F. quicheensis. 



Leaves neither denticulate nor striate, often horny-toothed. Euftjrceabia. 

 Leaves 5 to 8 cm. wide. 

 Leaves narrow (5 to 6 cm. wide), straight between the short teeth. 



5. F. cahum. 

 Leaves moderate (7 to 8 cm. wide), the margin concave between the teeth. 



6. F. melanodonta. 

 Leaves broad (10 to 20 cm.). 

 Leaves with numerous marginal red-brown teeth. 

 Plants with a trunk sometimes 2 meters tall ; leaves mostly entire above 



the middle 7. F. selloa. 



Plants mostly acaulescent ; leaves usually toothed throughout. 

 Teeth rather short (3 mm. long) and close together (10 to 30 mm. 



apart) ; bulbils round-ovoid 8. F. guatemalensis. 



Teeth longer (5 to 7 mm. long) and more separated (30 to 00 mm. 



apart) ; bulbils elongate 9. F. cabuya. 



Leaves unarmed, otherwise as in no 9 9a. F. cabuya Integra. 



^ Fifteen Mexican species of Agave, not considered in this account, are char- 

 acterized by Mr. Alwin Berger in " Die Agaven," published in 1915 but through 

 the exigencies of the war not received until after the present account was in 

 page proof. — Wm. Trelease. 



