304 NOTES ON AGAVE. 
form two trimerous verticils, each of valvate xstivation, the thicker exterior ones cov ering the 
broader thinner margins of the interior ones, leaving only a prominent tapering middle part free. 
The lobes are generally oblong or linear-oblong, shorter or longer than the tube, flat or often chan- 
nelled and including the filament, concave at the obtuse tip, which is sometimes thickened, and usu- 
ally bears a short, whitish beard; they are erect or patulous, or sometimes at last reflexed.. 
The six stamens are more or less adnate to the tube, in some species free from near ee (10)] 
its base, in others adnate up to the base of the lobes (an important character which 
often been neglected); the outer stamens are usually placed a little higher than the inner ones. In 
the bud the filaments are always doubled up,® geniculate, and straighten out when the flower opens, 
and almost always become rauch longer than the perigone ; in a few species they do not exceed the 
length of the lobes. The filaments are generally attenuated from a broader base and terminate in a 
thin point, on which they bear the large and conspicuous linear, nearly quadrangular, somewhat 
introrse, 4-celled, versatile anther, attached near or a little below the middle; in A. Virginica the 
filaments are thickened upwards, almost clavate. The globose, or elliptic, delicately reticulated 
‘pollen-cells have, on an average, a diameter of 0.06 to mostly 0.08 or even 0.11 mm. 
The ovary consists of three carpels, opposite the outer perigonial lobes, forming three cells, in 
each of which two vertical rows of flat, horizontal, anatropous ovules spring from the central pla- 
cent. The stout, somewhat triangular, tubular style rises to the height of the anthers and some- 
times above them, but its length is variable and does not seem to be always characteristic. The 
stigmatic part is thickened, clavate, or somewhat capitate, and is divided into three carinal® lobes, 
which at last open somewhat or, especially in the first section, expand horizontally, and are often 
emarginate or even obcordate ; after expansion they (at least in A. Virginica) exude a viscid liquid 
— whether stigmatic or only intended to allure insects, has not been ascertained. 
The flowers of Agave (I speak particularly of A. Virginica, the only one I have been able to 
observe in its development, but I suspect that the same holds good in all the species) are vespertine 
or nocturnal and proterandrous. They open late in the afternoon or in the evening, and, while the 
filaments straighten out and elongate, the anther-cells burst and emit the large pollen grains, and on 
the following morning are found withering and empty. The style at this period usually 
‘does not yet exceed the perigone (in A. maculosa it is much shorter), and its lobes are [299 (11)] 
firmly closed; but now it begins to elongate and attains its functional maturity 48 hours 
after the anthers have opened, which by this time have mostly fallen off.* 
he Agave flowers are odorous, some of them, like A. Virginiea, of the sweetest fragrance, 
resembling tuberose, though not so overpowering; others are more or less fetid. These odors are 
most fully developed, as is also the case in the tuberose, in the evening and at night, indicating 
undoubtedly the design of attracting vespertine insects to assist in pollenization. But whether 
insects aid in this process, or the higher-placed flowers drop their pollen from the just bursting 
anthers on the opening stigmas of the lower and older ones, has not been ascertained. 
The fruit is always an erect, dry, 3-celled capsule, globose or even depressed, or ovate, oblong 
and sometimes prismatic, obtuse at base or contracted into a sort of a stipe, obtusish at tip or acute 
or rostrate, opening above, generally about the upper third or half only. The numerous horizontal 
seeds are flat, black, semi-orbicular or obliquely orbicular with a shining or opaque surface, which, 
magnified 100 or 150 diameters, shows the epidermal cells flat and scarcely distinct from one 
another, or with distinct somewhat elevated cell-walls; or they are slightly depressed, giving the 
9 Even the short filaments of A. maculosa are thus gen- * In figures of Agave flowers we not rarely meet with 
(See p. sarees ote.) bursting anthers and a fully elongated style in the same 
© The curved anthers ge bis in some descriptions can flower; which I suppose is factitious, and not founded on 
eae refer to effete and withering correct observation. — See a brief note on this subject, by 
See page 293, note. Engelmann, in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 1872, 111. 37.— Eps. 
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