NOTES ON AGAVE. 307 
II. GEMINIFLORZ. 
Flores e bractearum axillis bini oppositi, dense spicati. 
The species appertaining to this section, 40 or 50 in the books, 4 of which belong to our Flora, are usually 
stouter, sometimes with a short trunk, leaves rarely soft and-almost herbaceous, but perhaps always rege: _ 
tough and sometimes the toughest in the whole genus ; their margin is most variable, entire, or with small 
cartlaginens teeth, or filamentose, or with stout, horny brown spines. — Together with the first section they Pb 
the Agave spicate of some authors ; others, who have principally regarded the growth and foliage of cultivated plants, 
have scattered them in various groups, mixed with the species of the next section. 
* Folia margine serrulato-aspera. 
4, AGAVE FALCATA, n. sp.: acaulis; foliis e basi lata linearibus rectis seu plerumque falcatis rigidissimis supra 
planis concavisve (siccatis) dorso sian argine serrulato-asperatis apice in spinam fere or supra plan- 
iusculam excurrentibus ; scapo et — bracteis e basi latiore ee marcidis deciduis stipato ; ovario 
lobisyue perigonii ovatis erecto-patulis eo equilongis tubo multo (ter) brevioribus ; staminibus ‘lin tubo vel ultra 
insertis perigonium fere duplo su dimoiisa as stylo gracili apice trilo 
altillo, Buena Vista, and apparently all over that northern pit of Mexico, abundantly collected by Drs. 
Wislizenus and Gregg in 1846-48 ; flowering in the latter part of May, and again in July and August, probably at 
different seasons, as many Mexican plants do, stimulated to development by a few rains or even a single heavy one. — 
As the plant is common in a region often traversed by collectors, it seems strange that it should not have become 
known and been brought into cultivation long since; but I can find no description which I might refer here, unless 
it be the A. Californica, Hort. Kew, of which od find a notice in Jacobi’s Agave, App. p. 47; but I strongly suspect 
that this refers to no Agave at all, but to soir Whipplet. 
Leaves hard and rigid, finely serrulate, 6-15 inches long, sheathing base 1-14 inches wide, soon [305 (17)] 
contracted to the width of 3-5 or 6 lines, daieaait to the point, the sharp brown spine of 6 lines in length, 
triangular, nearly flat above, with two sharp lateral and one obtuse carinal edge; leaves usually falcate, sadly straight. 
Scape “3-8 feet high,” bearing arid filiform bracts of 2 inches or more in length, smaller in the inflorescence. Flowers 
crowded on very short knbbby eta 12-15 lines long, ovary and lobes each 23-3, tube 6-7 lines long, and at the 
throat nearly 3 lines wide ; filaments inserted just a abies the middle of the tube, reaching about 1 inch above the 
perigone ; anthers 7 lines long. Fruit wee collected. 
* * Folia margine filamentosa. 
5. Agave Scuortt: acaulis ; foliis e basi lata linearibus rectis seu subfalcatis rigidis supra planis concavisve 
dorso convexis seu (siccatis) carinatis margine abunde filiferis apice in spinam robustam teretem fuscam excurrentibus ; 
pedicellis brevibus, ovario et lobis perigonii patulo-erectis lineari-oblongis equalibus tubo anguste infundibiliformi 
multo brevioribus, staminibus superiori tubi parti re re exsertis ; stylo robusto staminibus demum equilongo. 
geminiflora ? var. Sonore, Torrey, Bot. Mex and, 2 
Sierra del Pajarito in Southern Arizona ; pen tom ational only by the late Dr. Arthur Schott, 1855, to 
whose memory I have dedicated this species in consideration of long years of friendship and of the valuable services to 
science rendered by him in many arduous exploring expeditions in sie arid ‘southwestern wilds, as well as i 
sen tropical forests of the isthmus and on the plains of Yucata 
According to the discoverer, this as well as the next is one of the Amole or soap-plants. Leaves 6-12 inches 
long, 3-4 lines “wi, terminating in a perfectly terete spine 3 lines long; margin splitting into numerous extremely 
fine whitish fibres. Scape 5-6 feet high; spike . a NCI than in the last ; primary and secondary ped- 
icels about 1 line long: flower : inches long, ovary as well as narrow lobes about 5 lines, the ~~ widening 
tube 8 or 9 lines long, and bearing the filaments (8 as long and reaching scarcely more than 1 1 
tisha the lobes) 13 ‘tial below the throat ; anthers 5-6 lines long, large for the flower ; no fruit seen. i [306 (18)] 
AGAVE PARVIFLORA, Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. 214: parvula, acaulis; foliis rosulatis terre adpressis 
e basi lata vaginante dentata lineari-lanceolatis margine infra brunneo-dentato sursum in filamenta ade crassa alba 
soluto, spina terminali rigida supra plana; scapo Ng a pedicellis brevissimis ; Arcs geminis seu subquaternis 
parvis, ovario oblongo perigonio duplo breviore, tubo nde campanulato lobis oblongis erectis bis longiore, fila- 
mentis basi tubi insertis subinclusis ; capsula pisiformi hah breviter cuspidata 
1 Dr. Gregg collected near Ocotillo, direction of Tepic, in TISSIMA : leaves ‘‘2-3 feet long,” 24~8 lines wide, convex on 
Western Mexico, leaves of a plant which he says bears a the back, filamentose on the margin, narrowed into a short 
scape 5-6 feet high, and which, like many narrow-leaved (24 lines), stout, triangular, brown spine. It seems allied to 
es and Yueeas, was called Palmilla by the natives ; A. filamentosa, Salm, which, however, has much shorter and 
unfortunately no flowers came along, but, as it seems to be wider leaves. The form of the terminal spine precludes its 
an undescribed Agave, it may be designated as A. ANGUS- being taken for a Yucca, 
