Weber, Alb. 



Lyon, 31 January 1878 



Rec.Febl6 1878 

 Ans. June 30 1879 

 April 4 1880 



Very Honored Colleague, 



Today I received your letter of the 19th. of January and I am ashamed to say that it has been nearly six 

 months since I have written you. I also do not want to wait until tomorrow to offer you my direct 

 apologies and I hope that you will accept my excuses.Unfortunately I have been afflicted by very serious 

 family worries during these last months and especially by a prolongued and sad illness of one of my 

 boys, 3 years of age, that has developed Pott's Disease of the spine on the 12th vertebrae with 

 incomplete paralysis of the lower extremities. For the past few months I am the slave of my small 

 patient who does not leave me in peace for one instant to do my work not even to leave him by himself. 

 My correspondence has therefore suffered very much and I have allowed a mass of work to accumulate. 

 I have not been able to undertake the answering of any of my letters. 



It has been at least 3 months since I have seen my friend Mr. Martel in Belleville. Not even have I been 

 able to go to the Park in Lyon where all the Agave are. I have been told that one of the Agave attenuata 

 is getting ready to flower and I plan to go and see it as soon as I can.The last time I was there I made 

 some notes on the Agave miradorensis, that was flowering. It seems to be very similar to your Agave 

 Tetli or rigida. The structure of the flower is the same and the stamen are a characteristic red. But the 

 plant has many less thorns than the Tetli from our gardens and the floral crown is much more pock 

 marked than what you have described. I will try to send you a detailed note of this species as soon as I 

 "find the time". I have also observed a new flowering of an Agave schedigera that is decidedly very 

 distinct from the Agave filifera. The first has a yellow stamen and antennae(before the dehiscense), 

 while the second has remarkably brown antennae and stamen. There are at least 2 other species that I 

 will teil you about at another time. 



Mr. Martel has given me good news in regards our plants, in particular those that come from your last 

 shipment and which up to the present time are well spread out. We will be able to see what there 

 defmite condition is during the springtime at which time I will teil you about it. The seeds of the Agave 

 that you sent me, have in general grown very well. We grew an Agave Palmeri that looks very well, and 

 that I cannot find in any European catalogue. We also were able to grow an Agave Bendire, but it did 

 poorly from its birth on and fmally died. Its seeds were a little too contaminated. The Agave Shawii are 

 not well classified, but I believe more and more that they will be close to the Agave Ghiesbrechtii, 

 horrida, gradidentata, that is part of a group in which the skeleton of the leaves varies considerably. 



In one of your last letters you talked about your Anhalonium fissuratum you have at home. I would like 

 to point out to you that the Anhalonium always carry their seeds hidden in between their tubercles, and 

 what is so remarkable is that one fmds these seeds not only in the youngest tubercles but also in the 

 peripheral ones.I examined a large number of specimen of Anhalonium, alive and dead; in all of them I 

 found seeds that were deeply hidden and difficult to find, however when searching scrupulously 



