[ 11 ] 



so confused that the only safe course is to drop all three. The 

 plant dealt with by Alton, though the point is now uncertain, 

 the plant itself having disappeared, may possibly have been 

 the A. Vera-Cruz of Miller. The A. lurida of Gawler figured 

 in the Botanical Magazine is not A. Vera-Cruz. nor is it any 

 Agave known to us at present. A, lurida Jacquin, cited by 

 Willdenow as the same as Alton's A. lurida and as Miller's 

 A. Vera-Cruz, is very different from the plant here accepted as 

 Miller's A. Vera-Cruz. The difficulty in this case has been 

 due to the acceptance by Alton in Hort. Kew. ed. 2, of Will- 

 denow 's A. lurida var. a. which is based on A. Vera-Cruz 

 Miller, but also includes A. lurida of Jacquin, as equivalent to his 

 original A. lurida. That original A. lurida may have been 

 Miller's A. Vera-Cruz or it may have been Jacquin's A. lurida, 

 it cannot possibly have been both. 



DISTEIB. Native country doubtful, probably Mexico; naturalized through- 

 out Southern Europe south of the Alps and Pyrenees, in Southern France and 

 most Mediterranean Islands, also in North- Western Africa and Atlantic 

 Islands; (not recorded from South-Eastern Europe or the Orient): S.Africa; 

 Mauritius ; Ceylon. 



Agave Cantala Roxb. E 



Leaves linear lanceolate in a lax but even tuft from a 

 short ascending rootstock, pale green sometimes glaucous, 

 older darker tinted, very narrow in proportion to their length 

 which attains 4 feet and more, the greatest width just above the 

 middle being about 3 in., usually 2J in., curving gradually out- 

 wards from their moderately thick bases, or in weak examples 

 bent over almost from their origin, upper surface more or lees 

 concave, sometimes trough-shaped in the lower portion, marginal 

 prickles large for the leaf conspicuous falcate always ascending 

 of an inch or more in length, very sharp, pale brown or garnet 

 coloured from a small light coloured cushion ; terminal spine 

 usually acicular, cylindrical, reddish or dark brown, half an inch 

 to an inch in length; scape with panicle 12 18 feet in 

 height, inflorescence borne on flexuous rather slender branches, 

 fascicles 1-2 flowered ; germen equalling or shorter than the 

 perianth, perianth-lobes bluntly linear-lanceolate 1 in. long, 

 large in proportion to the germen, cup hardly any, lobes 

 divided nearly to their bases, linear oblong obtuse, greenish 

 yellow. [Capsule not available.] Roxb. Hort. Beng. 25 

 A. Cantula Flor. Ind. it. 168, Ed. Clarke 296; Graft. Cat. 



