— 34 — 
'Acareful e 
of the third se 
meat. 
The highest trunks of cultivated Agaves which I find noticed 
are 3-4 feet high and 3-4 inches in diameter; the thickest one : 
was 14 inches throughout less high. I have met with no accourifl 
Another po 
place and tin 
of the size they may attain in their native country. 
The scape of A. Americana is said to measure sometimes 36 
feet in height. 
The flowers of Agave are always more or less erect and of a 
Coarser, calycine texture, while those of YucCa are pendulous and 
corolline. • I ‘ 
NOTICE TO BOTANISTS. 
I wish to direct the, attention of botanists, who have the oppor- r 
tunity to observe the development of these plants, to the following 
questions: v Jj 
At what hour of the day do the anthers of the different species 
burst and begin to shed their pollen, when <}p they become en¬ 
tirely effete, and in what state is then the style? How long after-, 
wards and when does the. style of the same flower attain its full 
development, and when and how much do the stigmatic lobes . 
open or spread, and when does the stigmatic liquid fill the cavity \ 
of the style and cover the inside of the lobes ? — I have above.. 
given an account of these physiological processes in A. Virgi- 
nica ; the only reference to them in literature which I can find . 
is made by Jacobi, Ag. 310, where he says of an Agave of the 1 
second section, that the full development of the style and the 
separation and partial spreading of its lobes takes place only after 
The stamens have faded, which, as far as it goes, fully coincides-j 
with my observations. His further remark, that the stamens are 
not indexed in the buds of that species (A. Goeppertiana), is 
unquestionably erroneous. Of the floral development of the 
Agaves of the third section nothing at all seems to be known. 
I I wish also to direct the attention of observers to the time and 
nature of the secretion oThoney in the lower part of the flower- 
tube. 
The inflorescence of those Agaves pt' the second section which 
arejsaid to bear i or 3 or ( s in a fascicle -requires fur¬ 
ther investigation. 
