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The blossoms (in Euagave) are arranged in clusters* on 

 the ultimate offshoots of a compound inflorescence, which 

 consists of a series of main branches given off spirally from 

 the main flowering stem or scape, which attains (e.g., in 

 A. Vera-Cruz, Miller] a height of thirty-five feet including the 

 panicle. The scape is furnished with scarious bracts, and 

 there are similar but smaller bracts at the origin of the sub- 

 sidiary branches. The blossoms in Furcraea are arranged 

 in rows (with a bract to each blossom) along the secondary 

 branches of the panicle. The arrangement of the main and 

 ultimate branches varies considerably, but is constant and often 

 characteristic for particular species. In all, however, it con- 

 forms more or less closely to the well known ''candelabrum" 

 structure. 



The leaves of Euagaves are very fleshy, usually ensiform, 

 with a thick base which clasps the trunk by a dilated margin : 

 above this the leaf is more or less narrowed or constricted, and 

 then broadens upwards to the middle or above it, when it tapers 

 to the point which merges in a cartilaginous prolongation of the 

 leaf-margius or is capped by a stiff sharp horny spine which 

 appears to originate in twisted strands of the internal fibres. 

 In Furcraea there is seldom even a vestige of a terminal spine, 

 and the tip, though usually involute for about an inch or less, 

 is not ordinarily cartilaginous. 



The margins of the leaf are beset at varying intervals with 

 spines or prickles, differing in structure in the different species, 

 but usually consisting of a thin sharp more or less transparent 

 thorn arising from a broader opaque cushion which is formed 

 presumably from the thickened epidermis of the leaf -margin. 

 The substance of the leaf is always more or less fleshy, consist- 

 ing of large loosely- compacted cellular tissue traversed length- 

 wise by a series of vascular bundles which constitutes the 

 "fibre." The structure of these bundles and their direction 

 vary with the species, but in all they appear to arch or interlace 



Indian Euagaves are more or less proterandrous as a rule, but are neither 

 fragrant nor nocturnal. 



* In certain species the primary division of the scape is trichotomous : that 

 is, there are two side shoots with a third continuing the axis in the middle, but 

 the blossoms are in pairs with a third flower at a slightly different level making 

 up a ternary fascicle; in these fascicles the axis is presumably shortened, and 

 the lateral bud is perhaps analogous to a trunk-offset. 



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