Rec.July 13 Weber, Alb. 



Ans.Aug.2nd. 



Lyon, June 28, 1877 



My very dear colleague, 



Always prevented by the lack of time, I have not yet been able to gather my diverse notes on the 

 Agave that I would like to send to you. Today, however, I will dedicate one hour to chat with you and 

 begin to acquaint you with some of the fragments of my observations. 



Yesterday I went to the Lyon Park and I found blooming several Agave densiflora, Agave metraforonis 

 and Agave maculata (Regel). This last species interested me vividly and I noticed from the beginning 

 that it is absolutely different from the plant that you described under the same name.The longer stamen 

 do not allow them to be confused; it seemed to me that all its characteristics greatly resemble the Agave 

 variegata and I want you to be the judge by sending you 3 dried flowers to which I attach the notes that I 

 made when they were alive. If everything goes well I will at a later date try to send you the skeleton of 

 the plant, even if it is dead. I did not describe the leaves of the plant, but it should be easy to fill in this 

 gap. They are soft and evergreen and have brown spots and measure 69cms.in length and are 1 mm. 

 thiek at the base and 0.5 mm. thick at the apex. The flowering portion is 120 cms. high. Tere is a loose 

 Cluster composed of 19 isolated flowers, some small, separated from each other by 3 cms. triangulär and 

 they end in a point. The flowers have a weak but agreable scent. The total length of the flowers from the 

 base of the ovary to the end of the Stylus measures 8 mm. The ovary i s nearly cylindrical and isl cm 

 long and 6 mm thick; the collar is 3mm. thick. The stem is 1 cm long and slightly black and its upper 

 edge is filled with liquid. The lobes are 1 cm. long, at the base; they are curved over on the outside so as 

 to form an open limb and reflected on itself (limbo palente et recurvatö). 

 Diameter of the open perianthe is 29 mm. 



The lobes are green, shaded brown-purple, mostly at their extreme and on their inner side they are 

 covered with thin down. 



The Stylus are long and overlap the limbs by 9 to 6 mm. the Stylus is more or less long and sometimes 

 longer than the stamen by 6 mm. 



The Stigmata are trilobulated, partly opened, white and hairy. The Stylus and the stamina are brown 

 purple ( at their base the color is green with innumerable purple dots). The antennae are purple brown 

 before their dehiscence. after this they are yellow. The stamina are inserted in the upper portion of the 

 stem, approximately, at 2 mm. beneath the Separation of the lobes. They seem to come out of the bottom 

 of the tubules where they have a purple color. They are interwoven with the tubule up to a certain height. 



After this description you will be able to judge if the plant from Lyon could well correspond to the 

 description given by Regel, except that here the flowers are slightly smaller. 



In any case the plant is clearly different from the Agave maculosa Hook, and it seems to me is very 

 similar, except for its dimensions, to the description of the Agave variegata. 



With the next mailing I will send you a package of dried flowers of several species of Agave, for 

 example: 



Agave Americana 

 Agave Guedenci 

 Agave filifera 



