t 5 ] 



When a shoot has blossomed then in ordinary course it 

 dies, but the trunk may give off living offsets, or new buds 

 may form. In certain species, notably in A. Vera-Cruz 

 and A. sisalana, the suckers often flower along with the 

 parent. 



Poling is accelerated, and may be produced, by injury, 

 by sharp cold, transplantation, or any other sudden change in 

 the condition of the individual. At Algiers in 1830 the French 

 had occasion to clear for military purposes a piece of ground 

 that was much overgrown with Agave and the soldiers were 

 encouraged to destroy the plants, which during 1830-31 they 

 did by hacking the leaves and slicing off the cone of inner 

 leaves by way of sabre-practice. In 1832 the whole plain 

 was covered with the bloom of some 1,500 Agaves (Butt. Soc. 

 Bot. de France IX, p. U6). The effect of checks to the 

 vegetative system in developing floration are familiar (an 

 every-day example is afforded by the pruning back of roses) ; but 

 for most purposes it may be assumed that any of the Indian 

 Agaveae (including "sisalana") may flower by its seventh 

 year or even earlier. 



The flowers of all the Euagaves are partly "herbaceous," 

 i.e., they retain to some extent the special texture and colour- 

 ing of the vegetative parts, as distinguished from those of a 

 normal perianth. Those parts of the flower (except the pollen) 

 that do not thus lean to the vegetative type are generally 

 of a more or less transparent amber. In A. sisalana, 

 and perhaps in other species, the filaments are delicately 

 banded (" fasciated >? ) with a faint pink. The ripe pollen is 

 invariably orange yellow, though the intensity varies with the 

 species, and in the same species with the stage of development. 

 There seems little reason to doubt that Euagave and Furcrsea 

 are wholly anemophilous. Miss Mulford (Missouri Bot. Gdn. Rep. 

 VII above quoted) evidently thinks that the high scape and 

 honeyed blossoms serve to attract small birds and large insects. 

 Doubtless they do, and the aid given by this means is through 

 the shaking of the flower or branches. Hybridization under 

 artificial conditions is reported. With the larger species in a 

 state of nature we should think it is of very rare occurrence. 



All or nearly all the Euagaves are proliferous, /.$., instead 

 of all the flowers producing ripe seed-bearing capsules a 

 certain number develop buds direct without seeding, which 



