i 
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With the name of longifolia I designate, the variety known 
as Sacci and extensively cultivated in Yucatan ; it is principally . 
distinguished by its much longer spiny leaves, 4-52 feet long^'3- 4 " 
4 % inches wide ; flowers very similar to those of the wild plant,, 
but filaments greenish. A. fourcroides, Jacobi, Ag. 107, proba¬ 
bly belongs here, and A. elongata, Jacobi, 108, I would also refer 
to this form if the description did not expressly mention a chan¬ 
nelled terminal spine. 
Agave Sisalana is the name that Dr. Perrine gave to the plant f 
1 known to the natives of Yucatan as Taxci, the most valuable of 
! the fibre-producing Agaves, and which was introduced by him 1 
I into South Florida some thirty-five or forty years ago, during his 
| ^ efforts to acclimatize commercially valuable tropical plants in 
that almost tropical portion of our territory, efforts which were 
aided by Congress by a large grant of land, but which were de¬ 
stroyed, together with his own life, during the subsequent Indian '% 
j wars. With this Agave, however, he has been successful, as> it 
is now fully naturalized, and is quite abundant at Key West and 
the adjacent coast. Dr. Parry found it there in full bloomffn 
February, 1871, and gives the following description of it: trunk 
\ short, leaves pale green but not glaucous, 4-6 feet long and 4-6 
\ inches wide, generally smooth-edged, but here and there bearing, 
j a few unequal, sometimes very stout and sharp teeth ; terminal 
spine stout, often twisted, purplish-black; scape 20 or 25 feet 
high, panicle 8 feet long and half as wide; one of the largest 
j plants examined had 35 branches in the panicle, the largest (near 
the middle) 2 feet long, upper and lower ones shorter. The flow- 
j' ers are slightly l arger than those described, with a shorter, thicker 
Irtilaginous mar] 
Spence of a trunl 
its varieties th< 
■| the form of tl 
lienee, and, above 
Kparts, remain c 
|cter of the inflore 
§5. Agave Pai 
ovary, stamensjmserted a little higher up in the tube. The plants 
bore no fruit, but produced an abundance of buds, by which they 
propagate themselves and from which this interesting form has 
been multiplied in this country and in Europe. 
If this plant is, as is most probable, only a cultivated variety of 
A. rigida, it is of the greatest importance for the study and the 
understanding of the Agaves, indicating, as it does, the extent 
of variation which they may undergo. It shows that the size of 
leaf and scape, or color of leaf, are of no great specific value, 
and also that the presence or absence of spiny teeth on the mar¬ 
gin is not an unalterable character, not any more than the 
0 1 2 3 4 5.6 7 8 9 10 Missouri 
Botanical 
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cm 
