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is the short history of a remarkable species, which will flourish, 
highly esteemed by amateurs as one of the most striking and 
beautiful Agaves, and commemorate, among all who love horti¬ 
culture in other climes, the name of Henry Shaw, already so 
highly esteemed in St. Louis as the founder and donor of the 
“ Missouri Botanical Gardens,” grand at present, and promising 
a future as useful as it will be magnificent. 
The trunk of this species is short and globose or more elon¬ 
gated, 8-12 inches long, but all covered with its very regularly 
(in T 8 ^) arranged, broad, deep green leaves, forming masses nearly 
2 feet in diameter, set off by the large, bright, red-brown spines. 
Leaves 8-io inches long, 3^-4^ wide, with a distinct brown 
horny margin, which bears the unusually large, very close-set, 
flat spiny teeth, straight, or mostly curved up or rarely down¬ 
wards,or flexuous, the largest (near the middle) 6 lines long and 
half as broad ; in old leaves the margin with a few of the spines 
adhering, is often partially detached, but not as regularly as e.g. 
in A. heteracantka . The stalk, 2-2^ inches thick, 8-12 feet 
high, is almost entirely covered with large (4-5 inches long by 2 
wide) triangular bracts, foliaceous with brown scarious margins 
and tipped with a spine. The branches of the broad oval pani¬ 
cle are very stout (4-8 or 9 inches long, 1-1 1 thick) flattened 
above, and bear at the end a most compact cluster of 30-50 flow¬ 
ers surrounded by large foliaceous fleshy bracts, 1-2 inches wide, 
2-3 long, which form a sort of involucre; the whole, after the 
flowers have fallen and only the short truncate closely-packed 
pedicels are seen, interspersed with subulate bracts, 1-2 inches in 
length, simulates the receptacle of some large Composita, 2-3 
inches in diameter. 
Flowers 3-3 \ inches long, greenish-yellow; prismatic ovary 
il-iLperigon 1J-2 inches long, tube outside 8-9, inside 6-7 lines 
long, lobes 12-14 b nes long, outer a little longer and 3$, inner 
shorter, 4 lines wide. Stamens, inserted in the middle of the tube, 
only about § inch longer than perigon; anthers 14 lines long; 
pollen grains oval, 0.09-0.12 mm. in longest diameter, beautifully 
marked. Style,* in the numerous specimens before me, curved 
meeting in the centre, the cavity is divided into three tubes, which lead to the ovarian cells, 
somewhat obstructed, however, about the neck of the ovary by loose cellular tissue. 
23456 7 89 10 
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