202 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



nearly so ; perianth segments united below into a tube adnate to the 

 ovary (the ovary inferior) ; stamens 6, inserted on the perianth; ovary 

 3-celled; style 3-lobed; fruit a capsule. 



Key to the genera 



1. Plants with a large woody caudex; leaves very thick, rigid, spine-tipped and 

 often spiny-margined; flowers numerous in elongate racemes or panicles; 



perianth fleshy 3. Agave. 



1. Plants without a woody caudex, the flowering stems from a bulb or a cormlike 



rootstock; leaves grasslike, not rigid or spine- tipped; flowers solitary or 



few in an umbellike inflorescence; perianth not fleshy (2). 



2. Plant glabrous; scape from a large tunicate bulb, 1 -flowered, not much shorter 



than to surpassing the leaves; perianth funnelform_ 1. Zephyranthes. 



2. Plant hairy; scape from a small cormlike rootstock, often bearing more than 



1 flower, much shorter than the leaves; perianth spreading. 



2. Hypoxis. 



1. ZEPHYRANTHES. Zephyrlily 



Plants herbaceous, glabrous; flowering stems from a tunicate bulb; 

 leaves narrow, somewhat fleshy; flower solitary, large, subtended by a 

 spathelike bract; perianth funnelform, white or tinged with pink; 

 anthers versatile; capsule subglobose, 3-lobed, dehiscent by valves. 



1. Zephyranthes longifolia Hemsl., Diagn. PL Mex. 55. 1880. 



Atamosco longifolia Cockerell, Canad. Ent. 1901 : 283. 1901. 



San Bernardino Ranch, Tombstone, and Fort Huachuca (Cochise 

 County), foothills of the Rincon, Santa Catalina, and Santa Rita 

 Mountains (Pima County), 4,000 to 5,800 feet, in gravelly soil on 

 hillsides, June and July. Western Texas to Arizona and Mexico. 



2. HYPOXIS. 25 GOLDEYE-GRASS 



Plant herbaceous, pubescent; flowering stems from a cormlike root- 

 stock; leaves narrow, grasslike, not fleshy; flowers few, subumbellate; 

 perianth segments spreading, green outside, yellow within; anthers 

 erect, sagittate; capsule somewhat elongate, irregularly dehiscent. 



1. Hypoxis mexicana Schult. in Roem. and Schult., Syst. Veg. 7: 761. 

 1830. 

 Known in Arizona only from a collection in the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains (Lemmon 2891), September. Arizona to southern Mexico. 



3. AGAVE 26 



Flowering stems from a more or less woody caudex or a short erect 

 rootstock; leaves succulent, numerous, imbricate, forming a basal 

 rosette; scapes tall and stout, ending in an elongate, bracted raceme 

 or panicle; flowers numerous; perianth tubular or funnelform; stamens 

 exserted, the anthers versatile; capsule thick-walled, many -seeded. 



The names century plant and mescal are applied to the large panicu- 

 late species, and some of the small species are referred to as lechuguilla 

 and amole. In Mexico and Central America species of Agave are culti- 



25 Reference: Brackett, A. revision of the American species of hypoxis. Rhodora 25: 120-163. 



1923. 



26 References: Mulford. A. I. a study of the agaves of the united states. Mo. Bot. Gard. 



Ann. Rpt. 7: 47-100. 1896. 

 Trelease, W. agave. In Standi., Contrib. U. S. Natl. Herbarium 23: 107-142. 1920. 



