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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF EU AGAVE AND FURCRAEA. 



We have followed Bentham and Hooker in regarding 

 Agave and Furcraea as belonging to the Amaryllideae, but 

 whether this arrangement be adopted or not, Agave and 

 Furcraea with a few minor genera form a natural tribe which 

 may conveniently be styled the " Agavese." It has been 

 proposed to include the "Yuccas" with this, and to elevate 

 Agaveae to the rank of a Natural Order. The objection that 

 this would include types with the ovary " superior " as well as 

 those with it " inferior " is not very weighty (cf. Engelmann's 

 Collected Works, Cambridge Mass. 1887, p. 301). 



Both in Agave and Furcraea the perianth is divided into 

 six usually uniform segments; in Furcraea these are separated 

 for their whole length, but in Agave the " germen" (contain- 

 ing the ovary) is continuous with a cup which surrounds the 

 base of the style and gives rise to the stamens, usually 

 though not always at the same level as the free lobes of 

 the perianth, which vary in outline from ovate-lanceolate to 

 narrowly ligulate. In Furcraea the flower is more or less 

 bell-shaped, and the segments broadly ovate; while the 

 stamens often have their stalks dilated and are not inserted on 

 the cup of the perianth but upon a ring which embraces the 

 conical pistil. Moreover the stamens in Agave are doubled 

 back within the bud, springing up elastically when the bud 

 opens. The anthers of Agave which, though absolutely large, 

 are small in proportion to the size of the plant when compared 

 with those of Crinum, or Lilium, for example, or of some 

 Gramineae are versatile, In Furcraea the stalk of the stamens 

 (filament) is stouter and shorter than in Agave, and the anthers, 

 which are usually attached by their backs to the filament, do 

 not overtop the perianth. The style in most Euagaves is at 

 first shorter than the stamens, but elongates gradually until it 

 overtops them, after which they shrivel up with the limb of the 

 perianth-segments, but remain attached for some time to the 

 maturing " pod " or capsule. In A. Wightii (A. vimpara of 

 Wight) the bases of the perianth-lobes change in texture, as 

 the ovules ripen, and remain as a beak to the capsule.* 



* Engejmann (I.e., p. 304) was led to suppose that the flower in Agave is 

 vespertine or nocturnal. This was due to his having studied A. mrginica Linn. 

 only, a peculiar type which should probably be placed in a separate gen as. The 



