NOTES ON AGAVE. 311 
Jamaica, but to have _ or yellowish-green flowers (Jacobi, Ag. 122) and to bear capsules as well as bulblets, 
whence the names ; but none of our botanists seem to have observed such proliferation, which in other allied earls 
il ina Moninaea were ae noticed. The measurements taken by them in San Domingo of a “medium s 
: height of leaf-bearing trunk 2 feet, length of leaf 30-36, greatest width 43 inches ; scape 8-10 feet high, at base 
a foslies thick, length of lower branches of the panicle 9, of middle 12, and upper 3 inches ; nearly 100 yi on 
the strongest branches 
A single leaf ties me is 3 feet long and 3} inches wide, the terminal spine 9 lines long, a narrow 
groove occupying only 7 of its Jength; marginal teeth 6-12 lines apart, only 1 or at most 14 _ x [314 (26)] 
hard und sharp, deep brown. The flowers are reported as having a yellowish-green tube ; limb and fi 
ments and the anthers, before opening, are orange. The flowers before me belong to two — one ea longer 
(1 inch) pedicels and larger flowers, the other with smaller flowers on shorter (3-5 lines) pedicels. The ovary of the 
former is sible the tube 4, and the lobes 10-11 lines long; filaments not twice as long as lobes; anthers 11 lines 
long. The ovary of the smaller flower is 15, tube 2, lobes 7-8 lines long, and the exsert part of the filament longer 
than the ara perigone; in the former the stamens are inserted a little below the base of the lobes, in the latter at the 
very base itself. The capsule of oe eat is 13-1? inches long and 7-8 lines wide ; seeds 3 lines wide. 
* *« Tubus perianthii lobis brevior vel equalis ; stamina medio tubo inserta. 
t+ Tubus lobis brevior. 
. AGAVE SHAWII, 7. sp.: subacaulis ; foliis perviridibus erecto-patulis ne basin dilatatam vix denticulatam 
paulo contractis ovatis acutis spina valida late excavata acuminatis, margine corneo fusco vix solubili aculeis sub- 
contiguis maximis sursum curvatis vel varie flexis ornato ; scapo valido acts Sitiniets triangularibus toto imbricato ; 
ramis panicule horizontalibus seu eae coe! adscendentibus apice glomerulum florum subsessilium ER IE 
foliaceo-involucratum gerentibus ; ovario prismatico perigonio vix breviore, lobis lineari-oblongis suberectis tubo lat 
infundibuliformi métio stamina paulo exserta eres duplo longioribus, stylo stamina superante sepius pial 
capsula prismatica acuta. 
On the arid hill which overlook the sandy strand of the Pacific in the southwest corner of California, where the 
boundary is marked by the initial monument, this fine species, growing together with Cereus Emoryi, was discovered 
r. Parry in 1850, and a full description made; from his memoranda Messrs, Parker and Hitchcock of San Diego 
rediscovered it a few months ago and supplied me with most instructive photographs and ara koe ep ; last 
summer Dr. Palmer collected it with immature fruit, and in November the above-named gentleme 
it in full bloom and sent fresh bunches to St. Louis. This is the short history of a remarkable “vig [315 (27)] 
which will flourish, highly esteemed by amateurs as one of the most striking and beantiful Agaves, 
commemorate, among all who love horticulture in other climes, the name of Henry Sxaw, already so ets esteemed 
in St. Louis as the founder and en of the “ Missouri Botanical Gardens,” grand at present, and promising a future 
as useful as it will be magnificen 
The trunk of this species is dik and globose or more elongated, 8-12 inches long, but all covered with its very 
regularly (in 8,) arranged, broad, deep green leaves, forming masses nearly 2 feet in diameter, set off by the large 
bright red-brown spines. Leaves 8-10 inches long, 34-4} wide, with a “aiatbiet brown horny margin, which bears the 
unusually large, very close-set, flat spiny teeth, straight, or mostly curved up or rarely downwards, or flexuous, the 
largest (near the middle) 6 lines oe and half as broad ; in old leaves the margin with a few of the spines adhering 
is often partially detached, but not as regularly as e. g. in A. heteracantha. The stalk, 2-24 inches thick, 8-12 feet 
high, is almost entirely covered ne large (4-5 inches long by 2 wide) triangular bracts, foliaceous with brown scari- 
ous margins and ti with a spine. The branches of the broad oval panicle are very stout (4-8 or 9 inches long, 1- 
ey thick) flattened above, and bear at the end a most compact cluster of 30-50 flowers surrounded by large foliaceous 
fleshy bracts, 1-2 inches wide, 2-3 long, which form a sort of involucre ; the whole, after the flowers have fallen and 
only the short truncate closely-packed pedicels are seen, interspersed with subulate bracts, 1-2 inches in length, simu- 
lates the receptacle of some large Composita, 2-3 inches in diameter. 
Flowers 3-3 inches die , greenish-yellow ; prismatic ovary 1}-1}, perigone 1}-2 inches long, tube outside 8-9, 
inside 6-7 lines long, lobes 12-14 lines long, outer a little longer and 34, inner cee 4 lines wide. Stamens in- 
serted in the iddie of the tube, only about } inch longer than perigone; anthers 14 lines long ; i pope grains ae? 
-09-0.12 mm. in longest diameter, beautifu lly marked. Style,!¢ in the numerous veda imens re me, 
curved and 3-3 inch longer than the filaments, sppiieniy already considerably ee when the cations [316 (28)} 
begin to unfold. Capsules cuspidate but not stipitate, 24-23 inches long, not qui in diameter, 
forming a densely packed radiating cluster, 6 inches in diameter ; seeds 4 lines ith. 
16 A triangular channel penetrates the style to near its base, where, by salient angles meeting in the centre, the cavity is 
divided into eee tubes, which lead to the ovarian cells, somewhat obstructed, however, about die. neck of the ovary by loose 
cell 
