March 19, 186?' 



I will soon undertake, to m combine the collected ex^erie- 



^ces 



about the flowers of the Agavae in a dlssertatlor, with Illustration., 

 where I have already gathered rieh »aterlal^ I have sueeeeded so 

 far to eolleet sone 20 Agavae f lowers, "L^^ot deseribed, so that 

 their collect! oir is substantial and has doubled.. 



ev 



tfhat you say about Timth's 



superf iciality and incorapleteness I underwrite blindly. But I too 



feil for a fault of hi s censured by you, will however iraprove du - 



ring the final editing o£ my work. I used several terms inoroperly, . 



for instance I used ofte^ spina or dens-, when it nust be callecF acu- 



leus. The Agava e have aculei ; then, in the be#i nning I 



used leaf Position instead of leaf directiorr. My transfer here to 



Breslau had a very benef icial influenae on on my existing anatomi- 



cal methods, and, speciallyy the olose contact with professor F.Cohn,, 



possibly one of the raost knowledgeable plant physiologists now living« 



My Observation s so far about the A^avae, have brouirht the con- 



c one lüde 



viction to me t « that one could with considerable certainty psäses fronr 

 the strueture and f ibr e^onsti tuency of the leaves, as well as their 

 ■Position, about the inf loresc enc e and the stand of f lowers... But, 

 within. the larger perimeters thus established, one finds agairr very 

 strande, diverging existences. Thus, I found besides others during* 

 the XMSM&X Fall of 1865 in the gar den of the Villa Serbetani on Lake 



Gono an Agave, the A. flava vi^ens No. 8l ( this number, by the way f , 

 is a pr^nting error, it should be 80 a ) • . You find on prrs 259 & 260 r 

 the description of the inf lorescence and the flowers, to whioh I add 

 the aecompanying sketch as exiola^ati on ; there too you have the sta- 

 mina which are affixed to the rira of the calyx.. I had drawn the pis- 

 til at first too short, thus you find the ring in niddle of then,. 



Here corresponds an equally of the flower to the 



stiff, thick-haired arrangement of the leaves.. 



Illlllll 



mm mm mJ LJ LJ 





1 



cm 



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 Botan ical 

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