t 
iy already coj 
) unfold. Caj 
ng, not quite 
iting cluster, 
ulescens; f( 
ileis distantil 
lida terete saj| 
n corneum M 
i ovatas capsul* 
losis fascia 
tipatos gei 
us medio 
nedium insert® 
rcroya rigidm 
:Vz, Haw. Saxitt 
Jacobi Ag.® 
aucis, aculeatfl 
ioribus margin; 
1 decurrente.-* 
quen (Schott)' or Henequen (Perrine), and distinguish, as Dr. 
ISchott reports, the Taxsi (Yashki) as furnishing the besfe.quality 
Brief the Sdcci (Sacqui) with the largest quantity of fibre ; * Chu- 
Mumci, larger than the last, produces coarser fibre ; Babci has 
jEne fibre but in smaller quantity ; Citamci , with small narrow 
Reaves and poor fibre, stands probably nearest to the wild plant. 
Dr. Perrine mentions another variety, Istle , evidently the Ixtli 
iof Karwinski, as furnishing a fine fibre called Pita . These plants 
yield a return of leaves when four or five years old, and may last 
50 or 60 years under proper management; the flowering scape is 
cut off as soon as 4 feet high, when, evidently, axillary branches 
icontinue the growth of the plant, which is thus kept so long 
S^alive by being prevented from flowering. 
1|> The trunk of the wild plant of Yucatan — which I refer with 
f little doubt to Miller’s old A. rigida—is 1-2 feet high, leaves 
f 1 £-2 feet long and as many inches wide, contracted above the 
Ibroader base and widest about the middle ; lateral teeth f or even 
K inch apart, mostly straight, from* a broad base 1-2 lines long, 
f rather unequal, with smaller ones interspersed, dark brown ; ter¬ 
minal spine 1 inch long, if lines in diameter, straight, or often 
somewhat twisted, terete, scooped out at base but not channelled, 
dark red-brown, a dark corneous margin extending down the leaf- 
I edge for several inches and bearing the uppermost teeth. Scape 
: 12-15 feet high ; flowers pale yellowish-green, inches long, 
1 perigon 16, tube 6-7, lobes 9-10 lines long; stamens inserted 
| about the middle of the tube, “blood-red upwards,” 1 inch longer 
than the perigon ; anthers io-iof lines long ; styles at last as long 
as stamens. 
Bp.:’^4. Ixtli , which in 1872 flowered in the gardens of the late Mr. 
I Thuret at Antibes, is entirely similar, flowers of the same dimen- 
I sions, anthers a little larger (iii lines long) ; capsules, which 
I grow with the bulbs on the same panicle, oval, over 2 inches 
I long, if wide, very short stipitate ; seeds uncommonly large, 4^ 
lines high, with a ventral hilum (in many other Agaves I find 
I the hilum more basal, a character which may be of some value). 
II believe this is the first time that the flowers of the Ixtli have 
H been described ; they idehtify the plant with the old A. rigida , 
or at least the above-described Chelem. A. Karwinskii, Zucc. 
b is probably the same thing. 
7 8 9 10 Missouri 
Botanical 
copyright reserved garden 
