C 44 ] 



to be identical with the Calcutta lurida : and this is the 

 species which we understand to be naturalized in South-Eastern 

 Europe and North Africa ; though in Spain, and possibly in 

 Algeria (where a second Agave is distinguished by the French 

 Botanists as "A. mexicana)" other species may have run wild. 

 Brotero* (Fl. Liisitanica, p. I. p. 539) says"/ Algarbiis 

 nunc ad sepes aliam Agaves speciem colere inceperunt foliis satur- 

 ate viridibus minus crams florentem non vidi an A. vivipara L. ? 

 an mexicana Lam .?" 



Without careful examination on the spot it is impossible to 

 clear up these points, but there seems small likelihood that the 

 Agave americana of the " Species Plantarum " has run wild 

 anywhere in Europe or Asia. The " lurida " of La Mortola 

 is usually called in Gardens of the South of Europe 

 " A. americana" or "A. mexicana." 



To distinguish the plant (allied to the true americana), 

 which is naturalized in India and (as we believe) in S. France, 

 in parts of Italy, on the Dalmatic shore, in the Mediterranean 

 Islands and in N. Africa, this will be referred to for the 

 present as '* A lurida H. B. C." 9 to distinguish it from the true 

 (cultivated) A. americana Linn., and the different garden 

 varieties of the latter. 



At the time Llnne compiled the Hortus Cliffbrtianus he had 

 seen only a few specimens of Agave 88 in gardens, for he 

 writes: 



" Flares dum explicat spectatores tanquam ad portentum 

 allmt, at absoluto brevi gaudio pent plant a radicibus" 



Closer opportunities have taught later observers that it is 

 only the one shoot which flowers that is exhausted, and that in 

 a vigorous example several shoots may come to maturity and 

 flower in succession. Conversely, under certain conditions, several 

 branches from the main stem may "pole" simultaneously 

 (Bull Soc. Bot. de France III. Rev. JBibl. p. 205; also VI. 



Agave t was first distinguished in the Hortis Upsaliensis 

 (Stockholm, 17&8. p. 87), but the genus dates technically from 



* It should be noted that Brotero does not seem to have been aware that the 

 mode of flowering in Agave is very different from that which prevails in AlOG- 



"Afri 



t Linnaeus states that he selected the name (v. Hort. Upsal. I.e.) thus, 

 ricanae et Asiaticae" [viz., Aloes species] " utpote officinales, diutius notae 



