ACHYRANTHES AGAVE. 



31 



to be, fumigate repeatedly, with tobacco until the 

 pests disappear. 



VARIETIES. 



Achyra?itkes Aurea Reticulata, leaves bright green, marked with 

 a net-work of bright yellow. 



A. Gilsonii, an improvement on " A. Verschaffeltii " ; leaves 

 carmine, stems a rich shade of pink. 



A. Lindenii, deep blood red, changing to crimson, leaves lan- 

 ceolate. 



A. Lindenii Aurea Reticulata, willow-shaped leaves, netted 

 with yellow, bright carmine mid-rib and stems. 



AGAVE. 



[CENTURY PLANT.) 



Agave, a word altered from aganos, admirable, is 

 the very appropriate name for the stately American 

 Aloe, a plant indigenous to a large area in the 

 United States, Mexico, and South America. In 

 nature its fleshy spiked leaves grow from three to 

 six, and even eight feet in length, and from four to 

 twelve inches wide ; it is from ten to seventy years 

 in reaching maturity, when throwing up a gigantic 

 flower stem, often forty feet in height, it blooms 

 and perishes. It has been said to flower only once 

 in a hundred years, but is now known, to flower 

 sooner or later, according to the treatment it re- 

 ceives ; being like the pine apple, forced forward 

 by the application of bottom heat. 



It is a plant of great historical interest. The 



