68 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



excluded. Agaves have a special claim on small 

 amateurs, whose business pursuits leave them hut 

 little leisure to attend to plants, for as the leaves are 

 thick and fleshy, they do not feel the want of water or 

 the sudden change of temperature in the manner that 

 other plants would, consequently they may he left to 



specting Agaves, viz., "that they flower only once 

 in a century." This may he accepted as truth, but it 

 must not he assumed that it takes a hundred yeare 

 for them to arrive at a flowering state, although they 

 are extremely long-lived, and instances are recorded : 

 of plants of the larger kinds being a century in cul- 



Agave Americana 



care for themselves with greater impunity. Although 

 the large-growing species, A. Americana, is quoted 

 as the representative of this genus, those which are 

 limited to space can be easily accommodated, for the 

 f imily^is a very large one, and some of the smaller- 

 gi-owiug. kinds form exquisite specimens, never ex- 

 ceeding one. foot in diameter, or even less. 



A few words must b(j devoted to the old saying re- 



tivation without producing flowers. But when they 

 do bloom, the spike springs from the crown of the 

 plant, and, after seeds are perfected, death ensues ; so 

 that the plant only flowers once in its life, and it ' 

 would be eqiiaHy true to say that it flowers only 

 once in a thousand years. This latter statement, ' 

 however, requires a little explanation, inasmuch as 

 it is open to contradiction. The genus Agave belongs i 



