2 



grown any flowers. This species is evidently very pauciflora, and does not resemble anything 

 that I have seen up to now. ! ! ! ! 



In my last letter I gave you the description of the flowers from the plant that carries the name of 

 Agave maculata Regel. I have to add that the flowers are sessile, so much so that Regel called 

 the plant pedunculated. Unfortunately all the flowers feil off without producing fruit. 



I must also warn you that the flowers that I sent you under the name of Agave Verschaffelti, 

 come from a plant that is perhaps not identical with the Verschaffelti, from which I have sent 

 you some drawings. Düring a recent visit that I made in the Park of Lyon I had the opportunity to 

 examine the trunks of the plants that had bloomed the year before and had the name of Agave 

 Veschaffelti. There are three that are more or less identical with each other and it is from one of 

 them that I made my drawing. None of these three samples is more than 2 meters high and the 

 flowering branches are not more than 6 to 10 cms. in length. But the fourth, precisely the one 

 from which the flowers came from that I sent you and that are labeled as Agave Verschaff, var. 

 elegans, could very well be nothing but the same as the other three. Their trunk is taller than 6 

 meters and the florescent branches are up to 20 cms. long, so that the panicle no longer has that 

 (spiciforme -no translation) appearance which is so notable in the others. The plant itself seems 

 different because of its leaves without being too different from the Verschaffelti type. 



I greatly regret that last year I was not able to examine in detail, the various flowers of the 

 diverse varieties of the Verschaffelti. I was absent at the moment of its blooming or better said 

 at the end of its inflorescence. When I returned I did not find but a few withered flowers from 

 the largest specimen. I hoped that this year, one or the other of the 20 samples of the 

 Verschaffelti that remain here and that are all adult, would get busy and flower and therefore 

 allow me to make up for my last year's negligence; but until now none of them has announced 

 that they would do so. To summarize, I beg you, not to consider the flowers that I have sent you 

 as of the Verschaffelti type ( the spiciforme paniculated), but only of the neighboring type in 

 which my studies could have demonstrated the difference. 



While studying the rieh collections of the Agave from the Garden in Lyon, each day I noticed 

 how correct you were in not agreeing with the major importance of the form, the height and the 

 number of marginal thorns, to which Jacobi and Salm gave such great importance. Within the 

 many varieties of Verschaffelti, this characteristic varies enormously. It is the same in the 

 Agave Ghiesbrechtii that we have here in 5 or 6 varieties, quite different in the length and width 

 of their leaves and by the characteristics of their thorns. But the most unusual fact that I saw 

 concerns the Agave Kerchovi. This beautiful species has (ensiforme. not translated) leaves, 

 they are very numerous and they all arise from the same seed. The capsules had been introduced 

 by Roigl. On first inspection the plants ( median diameter of 0-90 meters), all resemble each 

 other. When examined closely one sees some very notable differences in the number and the 

 strength of the marginal thorns. Some samples merit the name of squalidicans just as its 



