Agave. 51 



the fronds branch and spread horizontally in a very 

 graceful and peculiar manner. The leaflets are slightly 

 wedge-shaped, the upper margin resembling an arc of a 

 circle. The American Maiden-hair flourishes in a light 

 cool soil, and in a half-shaded position, or in a coarsely- 

 broken, shallow, turfy peat soil, covered with a layer 

 of moss to keep it constantly cool. It is commonly 

 grown in the greenhouse with us, but is especially 

 adapted for embellishing the low and shady parts of 

 rockwork, and for ornamenting beds and mounds of 

 peaty soil which have a north aspect or are sheltered 

 from the full sun. It is propagated by division of the 

 tufts in autumn or early spring. If done in autumn, the 

 divisions should be potted and placed under a frame for 

 the winter, as they form new roots more readily if so 

 treated. There can be no question that, if planted in 

 rich moist soil in a shady wood, we should have no 

 trouble in naturalising this graceful fern, the fronds of 

 which are such graceful objects in the dense woods 

 of the " great country." 



Agave americana. This and its variegated varieties 

 are plants peculiarly suited for subtropical gardening, 

 being useful for placing out of doors in summer in vases, 

 tubs, or pots plunged in the ground, and also for the 

 conservatory in winter. It forms a large rosette of thick 

 fleshy leaves of a glaucous ashy-green colour, overlap- 

 ping each other at the base, from 4 ft. to 6 ft. long, 

 and from 6 ins. to 10 ins. broad, ending in a strong 

 spine, and having numerous spines along the margin. 

 When the plant flowers, which it does only once, and 

 after several years' growth, it sends up a flowering-stem 



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