C 48 ] 



With Agave (Virginia) this makes seven species. Miller 1 * 

 eighth and last is Agave ( Vera Cruz) which from his description 

 is Agave lurida H. B. C., or a very closely allied species. 



In the tenth Edition of the Gardener's Dictionary (edited ly Thomas Martyn, 

 London, 1807) in which there are numerous alterations, there are a few notes of 

 interest for our present purpose, e,g,, that there was a large variegated Agave in 

 the Cambridge Botanic Garden, which had come from Sherard's Elthaui Garden, 

 that had reached the age of 60 years without flowering. This w.as no doubt 

 a true Agave americana, Linn. Again Mr. Cowell flowered an Agave 

 in 1729 at Hoxton about which there was controversy, the owner maintain- 

 ing that specimens flowered in England previously were not the "true great 

 American Aloe," which suggests that there* was at least one other species 

 of the Agave Fur craea group then in cultivation. The third note is 



worth extracting, 



" There are now hedges of the common Agave in Spain, Portugal, Sicily, 



and Calabria ; it flourishes also about Naples, between Villafranca and Monaco 



and in other parts of Italy" But the common Agave of the Mediterranean 



is the lurida of the Calcutta Garden. 



We have seen that Linnaeus, for the sake of brevity perhaps, 

 omitted the Jamaica habitat for his Agave americana from 

 the Species Plantarum, while Sir Hans Sloane has given what 

 should be the same plant as a native of stony barren hills in 

 that island, stating that the local name is Cur am. 



Dr. Patrick Browne in his "History of Jamaica" (London, 

 1789) states that an Agave is indigenous and common in 

 Jamaica, the name is Oorato or Curaqa. He gives several 

 synonyms, of which one is the Linnsean description of "A. 

 vivipara" with the specific designation omitted, but no weight 

 can be attached to these citations because Bauhin's species, which 

 is the A. americana of Linnaeus, is included, to say nothing of 

 the Aloe sobolifera of Hermann. Grisebach (Flora of Br. W. 

 Indian Islands, London, 186&, p. 582) quotes Browne for 

 the occurrence of Agave americana Linn, in Jamaica. He 

 also notes that he has seen specimens from Antigua and 

 (naturalized) from S. Europe, and the E. Indies. .As it happens, 

 Agave americana Linn., is not naturalized anywhere in the 



*In the "Figures of Plants" (London, 1760, Vol. II. p. 148, Plate 

 CCXXII) which were designed to illustrate the earlier editions of the 

 "Dictionary," Miller has given an Aga.ve that flowered at the Chelsea Garden 

 during 1757. Martyn says this was a mere variety of A. americana which does 

 not seem likely, but we have not been able so far to refer it clearly to any of the 

 species described by Miller himself or by any other author. This illustration is 

 the only one cited by Ruiz and Pauon for the Peruvian plant which they have 

 identified with A. americana, Linn., but they admit that there were certain 

 discrepancies. 



