Order 1. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
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4084 The only species 
4085 Leaves linear carinate smooth. Scape angular corymbose, Flowers woolly 
4086 Stem and leaves smooth, Down of branches deciduous. Anthers with a reflexed end 
4087 Spadix nodding, Male flowers persistent 
4088 Stem spotted, Spadix nodding, Male flowers deciduous 
4089 Spadix nodding or erect, Male flowers deciduous, Spathes elliptical obtuse. Fruit oblong 
4090 Spadix erect. Flowers capitate, Spathes clustered scarlet very large yellow at end 
4091 A plant like a Banana 
4092 Leaves multifarious CEespitose recurved very narrow and rigid 
4093 Lvs. lorate atten. erect recurved glaucous above chan. with marginal minute dense v/hite serrulations 
4094 Stemless, Lvs. toothed spiny, Scape branched. Tube of cor. contracted in middle. Stem longer than cor, 
4095 Leaves toothed spiny. Scape quite simple 
4096 Leaves narrow lanceolate flaccid recurved. Spines marginal minute 
4097 A little stemmed, Leaves toothed spiny, Scape branched, Stam. longer than cylind. cor. 
4098 With a stem. Leaves narrow lanceolate glaucous tooth-serrated 
4099 Leaves erect bright green with an entire brown edge 
4100 Stemless, Leaves toothed. Scape branched. Tube of cor. narrowed in middle. Stem as long as cor. 
4101 Stemless, Leaves cartilaginous sawed. Scape simple 
4102 Leaves thready at edge, Flowers of spike approximating by pairs 
and Miscellaneous Particulars. 
of room for the roots, and a rich loamy soil kept rather moist. A plant of the banana was planted in the 
pit of a stove about 1811. " It was then about six feet high, with a single stem. In each succeeding year it 
has produced a bunch of fruit ; and in 1819 two bunches ; the first ripe in May, the other in August, having 
about four dozen of fruit on each bunch. The plant is now sixteen feet high, and measures three feet round 
at the bottom." {Hort. Trans, iv. 138.) 
7-12. Urania. A name of one of the muses, unjustifiably applied to this genus by Schreber, in the room of 
that of Ravenala, which it bears in Madagascar. To grow this plant luxuriantly, a strong heat and a good 
supply of water are required. Fresh imported seeds will grow freely. 
72.3, Buonapartea. So named by the authors of the Flora Peruviana, after Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of 
the French. Fine plants like Bromelia, with long, narrow, recurved leaves, and spikes of simple blue flowers, 
which were never yet seen in this country. 
724. Ag.ve. Altered from a^ayo?, admirable, which this genus may well be said to be, considering its 
appearance, its size, and the beauty of its flowers. In mythology. Agave is the name of one of the Nereids. 
A. americana is a popular succulent throughout Europe. It grows wild or is acclimated in Sicily, the 
south of Spain, and Italy, and is much used in the latter country, planted in vases as an ornament to piers, 
parapets, and about houses. About Milan and other towns in Lombardy, where it will not endure the winter, 
they use imitations of copper so well formed and painted, as to be readily mistaken for the original. In France 
and Germany it is still very common ; and in this country formerly used to be the regular companion of the 
orange, myrtle, and pomegranate, then our principal greenhouse plants. An idea used to prevail that the 
American Aloe only flowered once in a hundred years; but, independently of this unnatural application of 
time to the inflorescence, it has long been known to flower sooner or later, according to the culture bestowed 
on it. Many have flowered within these few years in this country ; and if the plant had the same treatment 
as the pine-apple, it would probably flower nearly as often. There is a variety with striped foliage, and some- 
times the stripes are of different shades of white, yellow, and red, as in the queen pine-apple. There are 
hedges of the plant in Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Calabria, and the West Indies. According to Long, {Jamaica, 
iii. 710.) the leaves are useful as a succedaneum for soap. For this purpose, after being cut, they are passed 
between the rollers of a mill with their point foremost ; and the juice being conducted into wide shallow 
receivers, through a coarse cloth or strainer, it is exposed to a hot sun, until the aqueous part being exhaled, 
it is reduced to a thick consistence. It may then be made up into balls, with the help of ley ashes. It will 
lather with salt water as well as fresh. This soap may also be prepared by pounding the leaves in a wooden 
mortar, and then expressing the juice, which may be brought to a consistence by the sun or by boiling. One 
gallon of juice thus prepared, will yield about one pound of a soft extract. The juice, in both these ways, 
must be carefully strained ; and the extract must never be combined with tallow or other unctuous materials. 
The leaves are also used for scowering pewter, and other kitchen utensils, and floors. The inward spongy 
substance of the decayed stalk is used for tinder. The fibres of the leaves, separated by bruising and steeping 
in water, and afterwards beating them, make a strong thread for common uses. All the species greatly re- 
semble each other, and it is doubted, whether, in the works of several travellers, different species of Agave 
Aloe, and even Bromelia, are not confounded in their descriptions of their uses. There is, for example, a 
variety of the Agave americana, called Karatas by Long, and there is a species of Bromelia of that designa- 
tion ; hedges of Karatas are frequently mentioned without noticing the generic name of the plant. 
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