﻿AGAVE MACROACANTHA AND ALLIED EUAGAVES. 247 



oblivion, undescribed, with the statement that the specimen 

 had died in the Berhn Garden. 



A. laxa, serrulata and rubescens as understood by Salm 

 agreed in having Unear-lanceolate recurving concave leaves 

 1-1?^ X 24-27 in., with rather small end spine and small mar- 

 gina'l prickles. Koch* ultimately came to the conclusion 

 that the three were identical, and merged them under the 

 name A. flaccida, which he ascribes to Haworth rather than 

 the Munich Garden. From the other two, so far as descrip- 

 tions go, the true laxa differed in its greener color and more 

 distant darker prickles, said by Jacobi to stand 1 in. apart. 

 Its identity with the others is questionable, and, on the whole. 

 Otto's reference of it to A. Karwinskii is no longer likely 

 to be challenged on adequate grounds. The probability 

 is that nothing more will ever be known of it, although the 

 laxa of Bakert will require consideration when the set of A. 

 Cantala are revised. 



A. serrulata and A. rubescens are hardly differentiated by 

 characters applicable to mature plants, from which the young 

 plants differ markedly. From laxa they were distinguished 

 by their gray green color, tinged with purplish in the 

 second, and their closer white or orange-brown-tipped 

 prickles. There is no great probability that they can 

 be separated as components of the Mexican flora, but there 

 is reason to believe that the names apply to a well-marked 

 Euagave of the Tequilanae alliance, now found in the region 

 between Tehuacan and Mitla, which is described below. 

 Comparable fine toothing also marks the early stages of several 

 of the Pacific slope species of the same group. 

 Agave macroacantha Zuccarini, Act. Acad. Caes. Leop. 

 Carol. 162:676. (1833).— Salm, Hort. Dyck. 8, 30o. 

 (1834); Bonplandia. 7 : 90. (1859); Wochenschr. Ver. 

 Beford. Gartenbau. 1861 : 182; Fl. des Jard. 1862 : 

 123.-Steudel, Nom. 2 ed. 36. (1841).-Otto, Allgem. 

 Gartenzeit. 1842 : 51.— Roemer, Fam. Synops. Monogr., 



* Koch, Wochenschr. 8: 101. (1865). 



t Baker. Gard. Chron. n.s. 8 : 780. /. 131. (1877).-See also Croucher, 

 G:irvl. Chron. n. s. 6 : 720. 



