Weber, A.F. Vincennes, May 27, 1 88 1 



Military Government of Paris 

 Military Hospital of Vincennes. 



My very dear and very honorable colleague, 



There you are! It has been a long time since I have been meaning to write to you, but the 

 accumulation of my occupations makes me delay this letter to a later date. It has been at 

 least 2 months since the seeds had been prepared for you, but I have not found the time to 

 dispatch them to you. My eyes don't allow me to write with a lamp; in the daytime I nearly 

 never have a moment to myself. Therefore please do not be too annoyed with me and 

 please don't blame my intentions. 



I have acknowledged having received the seeds that you were so kind to send me last year; 

 I still have to inform you of the results that I have obtained. 



A large portion of these seeds have grown very well and the young plants weathered the 

 winter well. I have about 30 young Agave gracilispina and several Yucca China and 2 

 Yucca canaliculata. In regards to the Agave Victoriae Regina ( consideranti), I obtained 

 from your seeds, 15 young plants. You told me that this plant is a true Littaca and 

 Ternifloral Nearly all are Littaca and Terniflora\ some are even Quadriflora. I observed 

 this last distribution on a variety of Agave aylinacantha. In general the flowers are located 

 in the inferior portion of the floral apex that have germinated; sometimes they are located 

 in pairs and at other times in threes or even fours, higher up when they have completely 

 germinated. In Paris there are a few samples of this Agave that Mr. Victor Considerant 

 received directly from Monterrey. He gave 2 to the Garden of Plants where they will 

 perhaps bloom in a few years. The seeds of the Cactus also came up. There were two 

 species: 



1) Echinocactus breohamatus. It gave me 5 pretty plants. I think it is the same as the 

 Echinocactus Schurii. The plant that the German horticulturists ( for example Hildmann 

 from Berlin), seil under the name Echinocactus brevihamatus is nothing but my 

 Echinocactus setispinus from Mier. 



2) Mammillaria micromeris gave me several young plants, but only 2 survived and are 

 behaving well. A long time ago I asked you to recognize the supra-areolar disposition of 

 the flowers of this plant, which is obviously not a Mammillaria nor a Corynphanta or 

 Aulacothek. You teil me in your letter that its blossoms are similar to the Anhalonium! 

 Why this? In my opinion it rather is a Melocactus, because all the Mdocactus have their 

 flowers at the end of the new mammillae and not in their pit, which has not been written 

 about until the present time. 





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