firmly closed ; but now if begins to elongate and attains its func 
ytsional maturity 48 hours after the anthers have opehed, which 
by this time have mostly fallen off.* 
The Agave flowers are odorous,'so me of, them, like A. Virgl- 
mca, of the sweetest fragrance, resembling tuberose} though hot 
overpowering ; others are more or less fetid. These odors are. 
. most fully developed,: as is also the case in the tuberose, in the 
evening and at night, indicating undoubtedly the design of attract¬ 
ing vespertine insects ,to assist in pollenization. But whether 
^ insects, aid in this process, or the higher-placed flowers drop th.eir 
% P°hen from the just bursting anthers on the opening stigmas of 
v the lower and older ones, has not been ascertained. 
i |The fruit is always, an erect, dry, 3-celled capsule, globosd- or 1 
: eveii. depressed, or ovate, oblong and sometimes prismatic, ob- 
£• tusefat base or contracted into a sort of a stipe,:, obtusish at tip 61* 
kneute 04 rostrate, opening above, generally about the upper third 
b- dr half only. The nufnerous horizontal seeds,a,re flat, black*, 
p^emi-orbicular or obliquely orbicular with a shining or opaque 
t' surface, which,- magnified ioo, or 150 diameters, shows the epi- 
I dermal cells flat and scarcely distinct., from one another, or with 
p distinct; somewhat eleyated cell-walls ; <br they are slightly de¬ 
l-pressed, giving the ^seed a pitteeb appearance, or rarely elevated 
and tubercular. The areas of these cells are very minutely dotted 
or'pifred,. 
The filiform, cylindric, or slightly. comprdsse*d r embryo-.is as 
pjong a^;the. hard, whitish, semi-transpafprit, farinaceous and *bily ' 
albunien. In germination the seed-shell is elevated above the 
I? ground on top of the largely developed foliaceous cotyledon, cori- 
■ frary tojfle behavior of Yucca/where the husk enclosing the' 
; “ small and ; soon decaying cotyledon remains buried in the ground. 
jpjjSee Notes ornYucca, 3%.p. 29.) 
^Some species bear no jruit, but, in place of the withered flower, - 
|f"or probably in the axil 6f its bractlet, a bud or biflblet appears,: 
; ^which|gro!ws. a considerable .size and will eventually sprout 
and propagate the plant.' Afl^tjie ^O-palled yiviparousj Aga.ves.J, 
mm 
\gy 
■|q Missouri 
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