ovary in common with the true bulbiferous AmarylHdaceae, 
distinguished by a naked scape and an involucral spajthe. The 
numerous horizontally-flattened black seeds, mentioned already 
bv Salisbury as being commpn to Yucca and Agave, are not 
found in the true Amaryllis family; nor do these possess the fili¬ 
form embryo which diagonally traverses the whole length of the 
albumen. Other interesting differences are found in the valvate 
; aestivation of the Agaveae and in their commissural* stigmas-^ 
TRUNK. \ 
The majority of the Agaves are acaulescent and monocarpic 
America! ; the short subterranean trunk continues to grow for yearsf until 
as early fiB vigorous enough to evolve the flowering stem, a continuation of its 
i they wer" ax is, and dies after bearing fruit. During its growth a wreath of 
the nairl numerous thick, fleshy, white root-fibres is developed every spring 
this dal 1 fr° m its lower part, while the lowest, oldest part of the trunk dies 
dis Hort^fr^ n d .-rots away. This is the case atjeast in Agave Virginica* 
{gave^ aiK; A few Agaves have persistent trunks, sometimes of considerable 
flants”a*^^^if nens i° ns > these produce flowers repeatedly, just as the caules- 
oes.” t' ' ®£fct Yuccas do, from axillary branches, after the terminal bud of 
vord » the inain axis has fulfilled its destiny and died. These secondary 
restingbranches are initiated by a pair of short and clumsjpgjjstrongly 
geograpi ' leaves, which may be considered as representing bud- 
s ^scales (J Niederblaetter ), as 1 noticed in vigorous specimens of 
.innffiuslli ^ oUc ^ ieana '> Jacobi, and A. chlorocantha , Salm, in the Berlin 
^otanic garden,, 1869. 
■* In the acaulescent Agaves the subterranean trunk dies entirely, 
ebyRJ *■\*'Or for the greater part; but in A. Americana , and probably in 
:ea Yuiw thJpiajority of the species, it first emits from the axils of decay- 
nthes ash jng leaves numerous offshoots, which grow into separate young 
lizingtt ^plants and thus propagate the individual. In A. Virginica it pro- 
^indilR duces sessile lateral buds, which grow up, still adhering to the 
ion of.li& ^persistent part of the old trunk, & sort of corm, giving to the plant 
ed by the 
nissw. 
of the' c 
rpels, therefore al 
:er superimposed tc 
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