A 



[ 45 ] 



the sixth edition of the " Genera Plantarum" (Stockholm, 1764, 

 No. 431 p. 171). In the Species Plantarum Ed. 1. Vol. 1. 

 p. 323 (Stockholm, 1783) there are four species of Agave named 

 and described on the Linnsean system, viz. : 



1. A. americana 3. A. viryinica 



2. A vivipara 4. A.fcetida 



No. 3 may be dismissed at once. It has never been known in 

 India out of a Botanic Garden, it yields no fibre, and belongs 

 to a group so different in vital respects from the Euagaves 

 that it has been more than once proposed to separate the group 

 to which A. virginica belongs as an independent genus. 



A. fcetida is No. 13. of the Hortus Cliffortianus and is 

 currently identified with Furcraea gigantea, Vent. How far 

 this is a correct identification may be left for the present. 



No. 1 A. americana does not call for any long discussion 

 either. The plant which Linne had seen, and knew founding his 

 genus Agave on it, was undoubtedly the Agave americana L. 

 of Andrews' Repository (London, 17991811, Vol. 7, 433 f) 

 and of the Botanical Magazine, No. 365b (Vol. XII. N.S. 

 London, 1839), so far as the pictures and the technical descrip- 

 tions are concerned. 



The Jamaican habitat given in the Hortus Cliffortianus 

 is omitted, and the Vera Cruz variety which found a place 

 there also. 



It is said of A. americana " Ex ea hodie sepes in Lusitania" 

 and it is probably in consequence of this remark that the 

 species which is largely naturalized in S. Europe is often, if 

 not usually, called A. americana on the continent. 



The second species, Agave vivipara, clearly was not known 

 in a living state to Linnaeus. The description is " Folm 

 dentatis staminibus corollam aquantibus," which was taken 

 probably from the plate in Commelin's Praeludia, already 

 quoted, of " Aloe americana polygona " cited by Linnaeus as 



retineant nomen officinale et usitatissimum ; aliud Ms" fviz., Agavse speciebus] 

 " imponatur, inter synonyma nullum dignum occurit, licet antiquo generi anti- 

 quum nomen competeret, ideoque dixi Agave quasi plantam admirabilem." It 

 is usually stated that the name is derived from a Greek adjective m canine* 

 " wonderful," but Linnaeus probably did not forget the Amazon or the other 

 mythological personages of whose existence we are reminded by Danielli (l,c. 

 p. 69 annot. 2). 



t On the plate by an error CCCCXXXVIII. 



