444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Peon Habitations in the Deseet. Photo by F. E. Lloyd. 



with stout spines both terminal and lateral, which make them formid- 

 able objects to meet. These plants spread by stolons and form impen- 

 etrable masses where they monopolize the ground. This agave grows in 

 greatest abundance on the plain, where it frequently impedes the prog- 

 ress of a horseman quite effectually. It also spreads upward on the 

 ridges and in the canons to points a thousand feet above the plain. Its 

 flowering season is in June, though it loiters along in this business 

 through the whole summer. The flowering shoot is similar to that of 

 A. americana, but hardly exceeds fifteen feet in height. But these 

 great flowering shoots are of great interest in their strength and 

 beaut}'', looming up against the sky on the crest of some ridge, and not 

 the least in the fact that this huge inflorescence represents the culmina- 

 ting vital activity of the whole life of the plant. Slowly through the 

 years the materials have been gathering for this particular task, and 

 finally in a few short weeks of summer the supreme work is consum- 

 mated, and the great candelabrum of branches stands forth with its 

 hundreds of seed capsules, while the erstwhile luxuriant leaves are sere 

 and withered, their substance, as indeed the whole life of the plant, 

 sacrificed to this one supreme effort toward the propagation of its kind. 

 "When in bloom the inflorescence is surrounded by myriads of flies and 

 other insects attracted by the abundant nectar which the flowers se- 

 crete. These flowers in press, if not killed, continue for days to pro- 

 duce the viscid sweetish fluid which the natives collect and call mi el 

 or honey. When the seeds are ripe the pod splits down from above 



