322 



AMARYLLIDACEAE 



AMARYLLIDACEAE. AMARYLLIS FAMILY 



Perennial herbs with basal leaves. Flowers perfect, regular, the inflorescence 

 borne on a scape-like stem. Perianth 6-parted, the 6 stamens inserted on its tube. 

 Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; style 1. Fruit a several to many -seeded capsule. 

 Species about 850 in 71 genera ; all continents but chiefly tropical or subtropical. 

 Amaryllis, Narcissus, and Hypoxis species are extensively cultivated in California 

 gardens. 



Bibliog. Engelmann, Geo., Notes on Agave (Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 3:291-322, 

 1875); Flowering of Agave shawii (I.e. 579-582, pi. 4, 1877). Baker, J. G., Handbook 

 of the Amaryllideae (1888). Mulford, Isabel, Agaves of the U. S. (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 7:47-100, pis. 26-63, 1896). Trelease, Wm., Agaves of Lower Gal. (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 22:37-65, pis. 19-72, 1911). Berger, A., Die Agaven (pp. 1-288, figs. 1-79, 1915). 



1. AGAVE L. MAGUEY 



Perennial herbs with a basal rosette of leaves on a short or mostly subter- 

 ranean trunk. Leaves in ours evergreen, fleshy, spine-tipped and margined by 

 prickles. Flowering stem tall, arising from the center of the rosette. Flowers 

 thick and fleshy. Stamens exserted. Species about 250, South and North Amer- 

 ica, chiefly Mexico. A. americana L., Century Plant, is common in California 

 gardens; in Mexico, just before flowering, a plant of this species yields for a 

 long time one or two gallons a day of saccharine juice from which pulque, the 

 national drink of Mexico, is made. A. rigidu var. sisalana Engelm., of Mexico, 

 yields Sisal Hemp. 



Flowers about 4 in a cluster, the clusters racemosely or subspicately arranged along the 

 terminal axis; stamens inserted at the middle of the perianth-tube 1. A. utahensis. 



Flowers many in terminal bunches on the branches of a panicle. 



Trunk subterranean or essentially so; stamens inserted at the mouth of the tube. 



Ovary fusiform, about twice as long as the perianth-segments 2. A. consociata. 



Ovary flask-shaped, longer than the perianth-segments 3. A. deserti. 



Trunk rising above the ground; stamens inserted at the middle of the tube 4. A. shawii. 



1. A. utahensis Engelm. Trunk subterranean; flowering stem 5 to 8 feet 

 high ; leaves thick, hard, 6 to 12 inches long, margined by white teeth and tipped 

 by a spine 1 to 3 inches long; flowers yellow, 1 to 1% inches long; perianth 

 abruptly expanded above the tube, its lobes 5 to 6 lines long, 3 times as long as 

 the very short free portion of the tube ; capsule 1 to 1 l / 2 inches long, dark brown. 



Death Valley region. East to southern Utah and northern Arizona. 



Locs. Resting Sprs., ace. Coville; Tvanpah, ace. Mulford; Bonanza King Mine, Providence 

 Mts., Mum, Johnston $ Norwood 4302; Horn Mine, Turtle Mts., C. L. Camp. Sheep Mts., 

 Nev., Purpus 6135. 



Refs. AGAVE UTAHENSIS Engelm.; Wats. Bot. King, 497 (1871), type loc. St. George, 

 Utah, Palmer; Cov. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4:201 (1893); Mulford, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 7:77, pi. 32 (1896). 



2. A. consociata Trel. (Fig. 59.) Plants usually forming very dense and 

 commonly circular colonies 3 to 12 feet broad ; trunk none, the leaves densely 

 clustered at the base ; flowering stem slender, 6 to 12 feet high ; leaves thick and 

 fleshy, blue-green, 6 to 12 inches long, edged with straight or curved pale teeth 

 and tipped with a slender black spine; inflorescence slender, rather sparse; 

 flowers yellow, l 1 /^ to 2*4 inches long ; perianth lobes 7 to 8 lines long, the free 

 portion of the tube only l 1 /^ to 2 lines long; capsule l 1 ^ to 1% inches long, dark 

 brown, abruptly short-pointed at apex. 



San Jacinto Mts. south to eastern San Diego Co. Lower California. 



Econ. Note. The central part of the rosette and the young flower stalk are roasted for 

 food by the Cbahuilla Indians who also use the leaf fibres, says Dr. D. P. Barrows, for the 

 manufacture of cordage, ropes and bowstrings. The fibres are prepared by soaking and 

 basting the leaves; an old woman then takes a handful, combs them straight between her 



