142 AMARYLLIDACE^E. Agave. 



1. AGAVE, Linn. AMERICAN ALOE. 



Perianth tubular at base or campanulate, thick and fleshy and somewhat persist- 

 ent, 6-cleft ; the valvate divisions similar and nearly equal. Filaments more or less 

 adnate to the tube, geniculately inflexed in the bud, at length exserted : anthers 

 linear, versatile. Style tubular, stout, and elongated : stigma thickened. Capsule 

 coriaceous, with numerous horizontal flattened black seeds. Embryo as long as the 

 horny albumen. With short stems or usually acaiilescent from a thick fibrous- 

 rooted crown ; the clustered leaves thick and fleshy, spiny pointed and usually with 

 spiny teeth ; flowers numerous, on very short jointed bracteolate pedicels, spicate or 

 paniculate upon a stout and tall bracteate woody scape. Engelmann, Trans. St. 

 Louis Acad. iii. 291 ; Baker, Gard. Chronicle, 1877. 



An American genus 9f perhaps 100 species, chiefly Mexican, about a dozen being found in the 

 dry region between the Colorado River and Texas, and a single species in the S. Atlantic States. 

 The genus is divided into three sections according as the flowers are solitary at each bractlet and 

 loosely spicate (no species west of New Mexico), in pairs at each axil and densely spicate (of 

 which A. Schottii, Engelm., and A. parviflora, Torr., with filamentous leaves, are found in S. 

 Arizona), or with the flowers clustered and paniculate at the ends of the branches of the scape, as 

 in the following species and in all the typical Agaves. 



* Perianth-tube many times shorter than the lobes. 



1. A. Newberryi, Engelm. Acaulescent : leaves lance-linear, 7 to 10 inches 

 long, narrowing from a base 9 lines wide, rigid and entire, the terminal spine brown 

 and semite rete, grooved above : scape slender, 8 feet high : flowers in a long and 

 loose narrow raceme-like panicle, with short (6 lines long) lanceolate bracts ; the 

 branchlets an inch or two long and 1 to 3 inches apart, 2 - 5-flowered : perianth 

 and ovary about an inch long, the tube very short and campanulate ; lobes oblong : 

 stamens on the base of the tube, short; anthers 4 or 5 lines long. Trans. St. 

 Louis Acad. iii. 309. Agave, n. sp., Torrey, Ives' Rep. 29. 



Collected only at Peacock Spring in Northwestern Arizona (Newberry), in early flower (in 

 March) ; fruit therefore unknown. 



2. A. deserti, Engelm. 1. c. 310. Acaulescent : leaves densely clustered, thick, 

 deeply concave and very glaucous, ovate-lanceolate, 6 to 1 2 inches long and | to 2 

 wide, slightly contracted above the broad spiny-toothed base, attenuate above the 

 middle into a long (1 or 2 inches) slender laterally compressed narrowly grooved 

 spine ; margin herbaceous below the middle, horny above, with strong hooked 

 teeth : scape slender, 4 to 10 feet high, with distant herbaceous attenuate-lanceolate 

 toothed bracts : branches of the panicle 2 or 3 inches long or less, the lower hori- 

 zontal, the upper erect : flowers bright yellow, on very short fascicled pedicels : 

 perianth nearly an inch long, a little longer than the ovary, with a very short fun- 

 nelform tube and oblong lobes : stamens on the throat, twice longer than the lobes; 

 anthers 9 lines long : capsule oblong, shortly pointed, If inches long : seeds 

 2^ lines broad. 



At the eastern base of the Coast Ranges in San Diego County, and on the adjoining desert ; first 

 discovered by Lieut. W. H. Emory in 1846. 



* * Perianth-tube not greatly shorter than the lobes : stamens inserted on its 



middle. 



3. A. Shawii, Engelm. 1. c. 314, t. 2-4. Nearly acaulescent, the short trunk 

 (8 to 12 inches long) covered with deep green ovate leaves 8 to 10 inches long 

 and 3| to 4| wide, slightly contracted above the dilated scarcely denticulate 

 base and acuminate with a stout broadly channelled spine ; margin brown and 

 horny, with very large close-set flat variously curved or straight spiny teeth : scape 



