C 57 ] 



The Agaves now existing in a naturalized condition in and 

 about the Saharanpur Grarden are as follows, 



(') A. vivipara ( Wight) 



(ti) A. Cantata (Roxb.) 



(Hi) A. not named; (believed by Mr. Grollan to be 

 merely a form of the preceding) may we think be the same 

 as Graham's "flexuous" variety of A. Cantala. It seems 

 to have everywhere a poor reputation as a fibre plant, which 

 is not the case with A. Cantala proper. This unnamed 

 form has a weedy habit, the outer leaves often bending 

 over almost from their point of origin. 



(iv) "A. lurida" (Saharanpur). 



A. Cantala is said to be widely spread in the Dehra Dun, 

 and to extend to the outer* Himalaya, where it is used for 

 hedges, but further enquiry is called for as to this, because it has 

 not been always distinguished from another Euagave of which 

 the Calcutta Garden possesses specimens, descended mostly from 

 seed sent by Mr. J. S. Gamble, F. R. S., from the Dehra Dun 

 some years ago under the name of " A. mexicana." Fibre was 

 manufactured in the Dehra Jail formerly from a naturalized 

 Agave described in accordance with the ordinary practice as 

 " Agave americana." It is doubtful if fibre has been ever made, 

 save as an experiment, from the true A. americana of Linnaeus, 

 which does not exist in the Dehra Dun, or anywhere else in 

 India for that matter, so far as we know, in sufficient quantity. 

 The difficulties that confront the student in dealing with 

 the Agavese are well illustrated by the case of Roxburgh's 

 species. Mr. Baker (Gard. Chron. 1877, Vol. VIII. p. 780) 

 refers A. Gantula of Roxburgh to A. vivipara of Linnaeus "at 

 any rate as regards the synonym Humph. Amb. Vol. V. p. %73. 

 tab. 9& " and at the same time cites the A. vivipara of Wight as 

 another synonym. His view has been followed, as the best 

 authority then available, in Kew Bulletin No. 39, March 1890, 

 CXXXV (Bombay Aloe Fibre). He further identifies 

 A. Cantula with A. Rumphii, Hassk. (Cult. Hort.Bogor.} which 

 purports to be the plant figured in the Herbarium Amboinense. 

 Rump f 8 plate has often been taken for the plant figured 

 by Wight, but on due examination of live specimens the 



* To about 6 } 000 ft. above sea level in the station of Mussooree. 



