ENGELMANN NOTES ON AGAVE. 303 



capsule 8-9 lines wide, less high : seeds over 4 lines wide. This 

 variety has retained its peculiarities in cultivation with me. 



Of the sport with crowded, often antholytic flowers, and with a 

 tendency to fasciation, I have before spoken (p. 296, note). 



3. Agave variegata, Jacobin Hamb. Gart. Zeitg. 21, p. 

 459; Agav. p. iSo; Saunders Refug. Bot. v. t. 326: acaulis ; 

 foliis late lanceolatis undulatis margine asperato denticulatis ; 

 perigonii tubo late infundibuliformi ovario oblongo paulo lon- 

 giore lobos ovato-oblongos patulos demum reftexos longitudine 

 aequante sen eis paulo breviore, filamentis superiori tubi parti 

 adnatis longe exsertis, stylo demum stamina superante ; capsula 

 oblonga cuspidata. 



On the lower Rio Grande near Mier and Matamoros, Dr. J. 

 Gregg, May, 1847. — Leaves (before me) 9-10 inches long. 15-2 

 inches wide ; edge similar to that of the last, but teeth often 

 sharper and curved upwards; scape "3-5 feet high" ; flowers in 

 Dr. Gregg's specimen about f inch apart, in the axil of a broad 

 triangular bract, 4 lines long, upwards smaller. Flowers \\ 

 inches long ; ovary, tube, and lobes, of nearly equal length, 6 

 lines, or tube a little shorter and lobes a little longer ; stamens 

 inserted about I or \ up the tube, not at the base of the lobes, and 

 about 2 inches in length ; anthers \ inch long ; style slender, at 

 last often longer than the stamens ; only capsule seen 10 lines 

 long and 6 wide; seeds unusually oblique (always.^), 2J lines in 

 longest diameter. 



I refer this plant from the Rio Grande with some hesitation to 

 Jacobi's and Saunders' A. variegata^ the stamens of which are 

 said to be inserted "in the throat," whatever that may mean ; the 

 leaves of this plant, which is said to be "probably" from Mexico, 

 and which has repeatedly flowered in Europe, are mottled with 

 lurid blotches, of which in my dried specimen no trace is visible. 

 I have not the means to ascertain whether any of the older names, 

 such as A. brachystachys^ Cav., or A. polyantkoides. Hort., refer 

 to this same plant ; the former, however, seems to be a larger 

 plant, with larger " entire" leaves ; A. saponaria^ Lindl., is cer- 

 tainly also similar, but, if the figure in Bot. Reg. 25 t. 55 is to be 

 relied on, is well-distinguished by having a prismatic flowertube. 

 The insertion of stamens in the tube is not mentioned by Lindley, 



