AGAVE IN THE WEST INDIES—TRELEASE. 23 
Agave Karatto Miller. 
Plates B, 14, and 15. 
Agave Karatto Miter, Gard. Dict., 8th ed., 1768; Abr. Dict., 1771; Dict. Jard., vol. 1, pp. 57 and 61, 1785.—Ono- 
matologia, vol. 1, p. 202, 1772.—Hawortu, Syn. Pl. Succ., p. 72, 1812.—Strupet, Nomencl. Bot., p. 18, 1821.— 
Don, Sweet’s Hort. Britannicus, 3d ed., p. 705, 1839.—Hrreman, Paxton’s Bot. Dict., p. 18, 1868.—Baxkzr, 
Handbook Amaryllid., p. 167, 1888.—Kew Hand List Tend. Monocot., p. 118, 1897.—Sreura, El Maguey, 4th 
ed., p. 59, 1901.—Agric. News, vol. 5, p. 61, 1906, as to St. Kitts —TretEasez, Wiesner Festschr., p. 333, 1908. 
Agave foliis longis erectis, etc. Mrmr, Gard. Dict., No. 6, 1759. 
A. Karrata Mawe, Dict. Gard., 1778. 
A. Karatta Lettsom, Hort. Uptonensis, p. 16, 1781. 
? A. americana B Arron, Hort. Kewensis, vol. 1, p. 471, 1789.—Arron, Jr., Hort. Kewensis, 2d ed., vol. 2, p. 301, 1811.— 
Martyn in Miller’s Gard. Dict., 1797.—Drummonp and Prain, Bengal Bull., 1905, No.8, p.47. Haworth, Syn. PI. 
Succ., p. 72, 1812, did not recognize Miller’s plant in this Aiton variety, though neither he nor Schultes assigns any 
place to the latter, which, if not this, may have been A. barbadensis. 
? A. americana FauuBerGc, Nya Handl. Vetensk. Acad., 1793, p. 184. (See Reuss, Repert. Comment. Soc. Lit., 
vol. 2, p. 70, 1802.) 
? A. vivipara DE CANDOLLE, Cat. Pl. Hort. Bot. Monspeliensis, p. 75, 1813; Pl. Hist. Succ. (Hist. Pl. Grasses), 
pl. 180, 1829.—Drummuonp, Rept. Missouri Bot. Gard., vol. 18, p. 27, 1907. 
A. Keratto Hawortu, Syn. Pl. Succ., p. 78, 1819.—Sprencet, Syst. Veg., vol. 2, p. 79, 1825.—ScuuttsEs, Syst. 
Veg., vol. 7, p.727, 1829.—Hrrsert, Amaryllidaceae, p. 128, 1837.—DirTricu, Syn. Pl., vol. 2, p. 1192, 1840.— 
SreupeEL, Nomencl. Bot., 2ded., p. 36, 1841.—RozrmeEr, Ensatae, p. 291, 1847.—Kuntu, Enum. PIl., vol. 5, p. 821, 
1850, as to the Miller description and locality —GrisEBaca, Fl. British West Indian Islands, p. 582, 1864.—Drum- 
MOND and Pratn, Bengal Bull., 1905, No. 8, pp. 52, 65, 71, 91, and 185; Agric. Ledger, 1906, pp. 128, etc. 
Agave sp. Agric. News, vol. 6, p. 133, 1907, as to St. Kitts. 
Acaulescent, not cespitose. Leaves green, rather glossy, lanceolate, acute, concave above, 
20 by 150 cm.; spine black-chestnut, smooth, polished at tip, mostly recurved-mucronate, 
3-4 mm. long, with dull dark rather oblong involute basal thickening 6 by 10-15 mm., decurrent, 
deeply intruded into the green tissue dorsally; prickles 5-15 or 20 mm. apart, 2-3 mm. long, 
straight or variously curved or reflexed, triangular, sometimes with lenticular bases, the inter- 
vening at first reddish margin nearly straight. Inflorescence 5-6 m. high, the upper third or 
more oblong-paniculate with spreading branches; bracts deltoid, approximated, subappressed ; 
pedicels scarcely 10 mm. long. Flowers golden yellow, 60-65 mm. long; ovary 30-35 mm. 
long, about equaling the perianth, subfusiform; tube openly conical, 7 mm. deep; segments 
5 by 22 mm., shorter than the ovary; filaments inserted a little below the throat, 40-45 mm. 
long, nearly twice as long as the segments. Capsules broadly oblong, 20 by 45 mm., stipitate 
and somewhat beaked; seeds 5-6 by 8mm. __‘ Freely bulbiferous. 
Caribbees. The ‘“karatto,” ‘‘karata,” “corita,” or “coryata” of St. Kitts. The earliest 
named species of the group. 
Specimens examined: St. Kirts, the type island (Britton, 344, 1901; Shepherd, 1908, 1910). 
Aside from Mr. Baker’s redescription in 1888, the authentic garden literature of this species 
consists in repetitions of Miller’s account; and there is no clear evidence that it occurred in 
Europe after about his time until it was received at Kew from St. Kitts in 1888. Salm-Dyck’s 
Karatto of 1834 was subsequently recognized by him? as being mexicana or Vera Cruz; and 
what he then called Keratio, in this being followed by Jacobi, was segregated by Mr. Baker in 
1878 under the name Salmdyckii, and from the description appears to have been a form of 
polyacantha. Misled, as Mr. Baker was later, by supposing that the red margin ascribed to 
the leaves was comparable with the horny detachable margin of lophantha or heteracantha, 
which he apparently knew in authentic plants, Koch in 1860 almost positively misidentifies 
Karatto with one or the other of these marginate Mexican Littaeas. 
1 Bonplandia, vol. 7, 1859, p. 88. 
