ENGELMANN — NOTES ON AGAVE. 307 



lobis lineari-oblongis erecto-patulis tubum campanulatum brevis- 

 simum multoties superantibus, filamentis basi loborum insertis 

 perigonio fere duplo longioribus ; capsula ovata s. oblonga plus 

 minus cuspidata. — A. Poselgeri^ Salm, in Bonplandia 7, 92 ; Ja- 

 cobi, Agav. p. 40; A. Lechuguilla^ Torr. Bot. M. B. 213. 



On the Rio Grande from El Paso down the river, Wright, 682, 

 1432, 1907 ; southward to Parras, Saltillo, and further, Gregg, 

 Wislizenus ; Karwinski, Poselger. Fl. in May. — I have ventured 

 to unite the different forms under the oldest (Zuccarini's) name, 

 the more so, as I was able to compare the original specimen in the 

 Munich botanical garden, where I found it in flower in August, 

 1869. Whether several other garden-forms, described under dif- 

 ferent names, all characterized by soluble corneous leaf-edges, 

 belong here, or constitute distinct species, can be decided only 

 w^hen their flowers become known. Zuccarini's tj'pical speci- 

 men has leaves 18 inches long and 2\ inches wide, with a spine 

 I \ inches long, the spiny teeth straight or curved up or down, 

 whence the specific name : scape 6 feet high ; flowers only i inch 

 long (ovary 5, perigon 7, tube over i J, filaments 15 lines long 

 from base of tube) ; no fruit was matured, but many bulbilli were 

 sprouting from the top of the scape. Gen. Jacobi (xA.g. app. p. 14) 

 describes a specimen which flowered at Brussels with perigon 

 divided to the base, most probably inaccurate, as no Agave is 

 known with such a flower. 



Our plant grows in mountainous and rocky localities, is called 

 Lechuguilla ("Lecheguilla" in the Mex. Bound. Bot. is a mis- 

 print), and its rootstock Amole ; the leaves furnish excellent but 

 rather coarse fibre, and the rootstock is used as soap and is a 

 "savory food" when roasted ; trunk 4-6 inches high ; leaves (be- 

 fore me) 10-20 inches long and \~\\ inches wide, margin and its 

 teeth dark red-brown, at last fading to ash-color and becoming 

 detached from the leaf, but adhering long to the terminal spine ; 

 teeth 9-12 or 15 lines apart, below smaller and straight, upward 

 larger (15-2 or even 3 lines long) and strongly uncinate, not irre- 

 gular, as in the original specimen ; terminal spine 7-9 lines long, 

 slightly grooved on lower third or fourth. Scape 6-10 feet high, 

 its bracts from 2 inches down to \ inch long, deciduous, so that 

 in the flowering spike little of them is seen. The flowers before 

 me indicate two forms, one with a slender ovary, 7-9 lines long, 



