lflores-' 
• these, 
ited 
hese, 
5d in I 
inica 
g’lma 
spike, 
flower 
distin- 
rmally 
)ndary 
lushed 
>., 
which 
spike. I 
r(e.g. 
ateral 
), andi 
atte- 
\ with 
bract, 
i with 
in the 
ower- 
if the 
minate abruptly,is usual, but is continued into a bristle between 
the flowers (A. mitis in H. Bot. Berlin), and may even bear a 
third, median, flower, if the description of the inflorescence of 
A. loft/iantha by Jacobi (Ag. p. 202) Is to be relied on ; the flow¬ 
ers are there said to be ternate, the pedicel of the middle one 
being 1 line longer than tlose of the lateral opes.* 
The species of the third section, Paniculate are distinguished - 
b y a branching inflorescence, a panicle, in which more or less 
crowded bunches of flowers are borne on the end of secondary or 
tertiary branches. I have not been able to examine fresh inflo¬ 
rescences or their development, but, judging from dried frag¬ 
ments, the flowers seem originally to appear in pairs, usually , 
with secondary and tertiary flowers unsymmetrically developed 
from their pedicels, and at last clustered, sometimes 20 or 30 
or more together,, so that their relative position *can not be un¬ 
ravelled. 
FLOWERS. 
The flowers of the Agaves are thick and fleshy, often of lurid, 
greenish, yellowish, or brownish colors ; rarely brighter, yellow 
(^. desert i) , or orange (A. Antillarum).' They consist of an 
inferior qvafy, bearing the style, and a not; articulated, subper- 
sistent perigoh, with the stamens. 
. Xli^perigonal tube, straight, or often somewhat curved, is 
eifhdf ^short, campanulate, sometimes quite shallow, or longer, 
funnebshaped, or even cylindric, or rather triangular-prismatic. 
ThedWfes form two trimerous verticils, each of valvate, aestiva¬ 
tion, the thicker exterior ones covering the broader thinner 
margins of tlfe interior ones, leaving only a prominent, tapering 
middle part free. The lobes are generally oblong or linear- 
oblong, shorter or longer than the tube, flat or often channelled 
and including the filament, concave at the obtuse tip, which is 
sometimes thickened, and usually bears a short, y/hitish beard ; 
they are erect or patulous, or sometimes at last reflexed. 
The six stamens are more or less adnate to the tube, Art some 
a&t; others are said I 
to the Geminiflorse, with a g 
It is to be hoped that in futu 
e prOMti^ belong 
pm er^f lowers. 
if 
