NOTES ON AGAVE. 303 
ing to these, the numerous species of this genus naturally are distributed in three different 
sections. 
The first section, Singuliflore, to which our A. Virginica belongs, bears single flowers in a 
simple, generally slender spike, never crowded as the spikes of the next section are; each flower is 
borne in the axil of a bract on a short pedicel, which is distinguished by a single lateral bractlet. 
This bractlet is normally sterile, but in monstrous inflorescences may produce secondary and tertiary 
flowers, which, however, can always be distinguished from those of the next section by never 
appearing in pairs. 
The second section, Geminiflore (gen. Littea, Tagliab., Bonapartea, Willd., non. Ruiz & Pav.), 
comprises the species which produce flowers in pairs, crowded into a more or less dense spike. 
From the axil of each primary bract a short or rarely longer (e. g. A. Utahensis) peduncle originates, 
bearing two opposite lateral bracts (sometimes pushed somewhat toward the main axis), and in 
their axils the flowers on two short (rarely, e. g. in A. attenuata, Hort. Cels. Paris, 1869, longer) 
secondary pedicels with bractlets of the third order directed toward the primary bract. These 
bractlets occasionally bear a second pair of flowers with lateral bractlets of the fourth order, directed 
inward, and in the axils of these occasionally (A. attenwata) rudimentary flower-buds are seen. An 
internal perigonial lobe of the flowers of the primary pair is directed backwards and outwards 
toward the margin of the primary bract, and an external lobe toward the bractlet. In 
rare instances the primary peduncle does not terminate abruptly, as usual, but is continued [297 (9)] 
into a bristle between the flowers (A. mitis in H. Bot. Berlin), and may even bear a third, 
median, flower, if the description of the inflorescence of A. lophantha by Jacobi (Ag. p. 202) is to be 
relied on ; the flowers are there said to be ternate, the pedicel of the middle one being one line longer 
than those of the lateral ones8 
The species of the third section, Paniculate, are distinguished by a branching inflorescence, a 
panicle, in which more or Jess crowded bunches of flowers are borne on the end of secondary or ter- 
tiary branches. I have not been able to examine fresh inflorescences or their development, but, 
judging from dried fragments, the flowers seem originally to appear in pairs, usually with secondary 
and tertiary flowers unsymmetrically developed from their pedicels, and at last clustered, sometimes 
20 or 30 or more together, so that their relative position cannot be unravelled. 
FLOWERS. 
The flowers of the Agaves are thick and fleshy, often of lurid, greenish, yellowish, or brownish 
colors ; rarely brighter, yellow (A. deserti), or orange (A. Antillarum). They consist of an inferior 
ovary, bearing the style, and a not articulated, subpersistent perigone, with the stamens, 
The perigonial tube, straight, or often somewhat curved, is either short, campanulate, sometimes 
quite shallow, or longer, funnel-shaped, or even cylindric, or rather triangular-prismatic. The lobes 
7 [ have a plant of this species growing, brought from the of the perigone and one carpel are turned toward the bract, 
woods in this vicinity, which produces its irregularly and an internal lobe and the commissure of the other two 
crowded flowe spikes every year in the same manner, carpels toward the axis. That abnormal stock, however, 
The lateral bractlet usually bears a nd flower on a sim- produces sometimes toward the tip of the spike flowers with- 
ilarly bracted pedicel ; this second bractlet stands either on out a pedicel and without a lateral bractlet ; in oan one 
the dorsal (toward the principal bract) or on the ventral external lobe and one carpel are turned toward the axis. 
(toward the main axis) side of the little inflorescence; a 8 Some forms are described ‘so as to leave us in doa in 
third flower, if present, is not coeval nor opposed to the regard to their inflorescence, e.g. A. horizontalis, Jacobi, 
second one, but later and higher up, and usually on the with a spike consisting of clusters of 3-8 flowers in = axil 
upper or inner side of the second flower ; if the antholytic of each bract ; others are said to have 1-3 or 4-5 flowers 
development, which then is often combined with fasciation, together. All these probably belong to the Geminiflore, 
proceeds, parts of the primary flower may ori more or with a greater normal or, perhaps, monstrous development 
less detached and again bear incomplete axillary flowers. — of flowers. : It is to be hoped that in future botanists or 
It may here be remarked that the flower of the Singuliflore amateurs more precise in their appreciation of these 
is so placed in regard to bract and axis, that an external lobe characters. 
