ENDOGENS. 



129 



Agave, are of this class. The last-named plant is some- 

 times called the American Aloe, (Agave Americana,) 

 and, according to gardening fable, only blooms once in 

 a hundred years, hence called Century plant. Its large, 

 hard, spinous leaves grow slowly for years, when sudden- 

 ly, in the course of a single season, a stem shoots up forty 

 or fifty feet in height, bearing a crest of flowers. In 

 Peru and Mexico an intoxicating beverage called pulque 

 is made from the sap. 



8. The ORCHID family (Orchidacece] exhibit the great- 



FIG. 53. Orchids, (Orchidacete.) 



est variety of forms and brilliancy of color among all the 

 vegetable tribes. The flowers often resemble insects, as 



