194 A G A 
alternately placed at the bafe of the petals and alternately 
on the calyx; antherre roundifh. Pfftillum : germ fupe 7 
rior, very fmall; ftyle very fliort; ftigma pubefcent. Pe- 
ricarpjum: drupe fomewhat globofe, crowned with the 
calyx. Seed: nut fomewhat globofe, terminated by a 
truncate point, half-fix-celled; kernel convex, beneath 
lix-lobed, with coriaceous partitions, feparating the lobes. 
•—EJJtniidl CharaEier. Calyx fuperior, very fliort, tooth- 
lefs: corolla lix-petalled, fomewhat villofe ; ftamina al¬ 
ternately inferted into tire calyx and petals; drupe juice- 
lefs, with a half-fix-celled nut, and one feed. 
The raven-tfara (for it is fo called in the Iiland of Mada- 
gafc'ar, the place of its growth) is a large bufhy tree, with 
a pyramidal head like the clove-tree, and a reddifh odo¬ 
rous bark ; the wood is hard, heavy, white, with fome 
reddifh fibres, and has no fmell. There is a fingle fruit 
at the end of each branch, the fize of a large cherry, fha- 
ped like a pear, with a roundifh body : it confifts of a nut 
divided into fix parts, in the fame manner as the,walnut 
is into four, covered with a hard coriaceous fhell, and 
that with a thin green fhell or bark very clofely adhereing 
to it; both thefe are aromatic; but the nut has an acrid 
biting tafle, which is almoft cauftic. This tree bears at 
five or lix years’ growth, and it flowers in January and 
February. The fruit is ten months in ripening. The 
natives of Madagafcar gather it before it is ripe, as a 
fpice, for the purpofe of feafoning their meat. It has a 
hue aromatic fmell when frelh; and the cauftic tafle may 
be abated by keeping it fome months; after which it may 
be thrown into boiling water for four or five minutes, and 
then dried in the fun. The leaves may be prepared as a 
fpice, in the fame manner. 
AGATHYRNA, or Agathyrnum, Agathyrsa, 
or Agathyrsum, an ancient town of Sicily, now St. 
Marco; as old as the war of Troy, being built by Aga- 
thyrnus, fon of Hsolus, on an eminence. The gentilli- 
tious name is Agathyrnceus: or, according to the Roman 
idiom, Agat/iymenjis. 
AGAVE,A- [ayavo?, Gr. admirable.] In botany, age- 
nus of the hexandria monogynia clafs, ranking in the 
natural order of coronarias. The generic characters are 
■—Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-fhaped ; border fix-part¬ 
ed, equal, parts lanceolate, eredt. Stamina: filaments fi¬ 
liform, eredt, longer than the corolla; antherae linear, 
fliorter than the filaments, verfatile. Piftill.um: germ 
oblong, growing thinner towards both ends, inferior; ftyle 
filiform, the length of the ftamens, three-cornered ; ftig- 
ma headed, three-cornered. Pericarpium : capfule ob¬ 
long, three-cornered, three-celled, three-valved. Seeds: 
numerous.-— EJj'ential CharaEier . Corolla eredt, fuperior; 
filaments longer than the corolla, eredt. 
Linnaeus has feparated this genus from the aloe, becaufe 
the ftamens and ftyle are extended much longer than the 
coxplla, and the corolla refts upon the germ. There is 
alfo another difference in the growth of the plants ; which 
is, that all the agaves have their central leaves clofely fold¬ 
ing over each other, and embracing the fiower-ftem, 
which is formed in the centre; fo that thefe never flower 
until all the leaves are expanded; and, when the flower is 
paft, the plants die. Whereas the flower-flem of the aloe 
is produced on one fide of the centre, annually from the 
fame plant, and the leaves are more expanded than in this 
genus. 
Species, x. Agave Americana, or common American 
agave: ftcmlefs; leaves tooth-thorny. The great Ame¬ 
rican aloe, as it is commonly called, has been long pre- 
ferved in the Englifh gardens, where, for many years paft, 
there have been feveral of the plants in flower. When 
they are vigorous, the Items generally rife upwards of 
twenty feet high, and branch out on every fide, fo as to 
form a kind of pyramid, compofed of greenifh yellow 
flowers, which ftand eredt, and come out in thick clufters 
at every joint. The feeds do not come to maturity in 
England. When thefe plants flower, they make a fine 
appearance, and continue a long time in beauty, if they 
A G A 
ar ( e protected from,the cold in autumn; for there will be 
a fuc'ceftion.of new flowers produced, near three months 
in favourable feafons. It has been generally believed, 
that this piant does not flower till it is an hundred years 
old; but this a great miflake, for the time of its flowering 
depends on its growth; fo that in hot countries, where it 
grows faft and expands many leaves every feafon, it will 
flower in a few years; but, in colder climates, where the 
growth is flow, it will be much longer before it flioots up 
a ftem, Cortufus is faid to have been the firft European 
who pofTefled the great American aloe, and that was in the 
year 1561. Gerard, in his Herbal of 1597, fpeaks of it 
merely from report. In the editionof 1633, by Johnfon, 
it is mentioned, but not faid to be in England. Parkin 7 
fon (Theatr. p. "150, printed in 1640) relates, that it was 
firft brought into.Spain, and from thence.fpread into all 
quarters. He gives an account of its flowering at Avig 7 
non and Rome, but is filent as to its being in the Englifn 
gardens. It flowered at Paris in 1663 and 1664. Mr. 
Verfprit, of Lambeth, had one tw elve or fifteen feet high, 
and in flower, (about 1698 or perhaps fooner,) which was 
then a great rarity here. Two other plants flowered about 
1714 at Hampton Court, and one at the duke of Bucking¬ 
ham’s, (now the queen’s palace,) by St. James’s Park, 
Another flowered at Lcipfic in 1700. 
Mr. Cowell aflerts, that the plant which flowered in his 
garden, at Hoxton, in 1729, was the firft which had been 
fieen in England ; thofe which are mentioned above not 
being the true great American aloe. Another flowered in 
1737, at Eaton Hall, in Chefhire, the feat of Sir Robert 
Grofvenor, Bart, and there is a plate of it, dedicated to 
Sir Robert, by his gardener John Foffey. By the infcrip- 
tion on the print, it appears, that it opened the crown for 
flowering on June 5; the ftem-bud appeared the 15th, 
and grew five inches a-day for fome weeks; the flower- 
branches were perfected in twelve weeks ; and then it was 
at a ftand for a month, whilft the flower-buds were form¬ 
ing. The number of flowers was about 1050. Two 
agaves flowered at Hampton Court in 1743; they were 
about fifty years old, and their heights were twenty-feven 
and twenty-four feet. The flow'er-ftem appeared on the 
third of June, was in perfection the middle of Auguft, 
and continued blooming to the middle of October. A, 
plant which flowered near Carlfbad in 1754, was twenty- 
fix feet high, and produced twenty-eight branches, which 
bore above 3000 flowers. Another flowered at Leyden in 
1760, and a third in the royal garden at Friedrickfberg, in 
Denmark, which was twenty-two feet high; it had nine¬ 
teen branches, and more than 4000 flowers. The high- 
eft, of which we have feenany account, was one that flow¬ 
ered in the king of Pruflia’s garden : this was forty feet in 
height. Two plants bloflbmed at Smith’s Nurfery, in 
Dalfton, near Hackney, in September 1790; but they are 
now fcarcely cbnfidered as rarities. 
Very few of the variety with yellow'-edged leaves have, 
yet bloflbmed. We have an account of one at Sir James 
Lake’s, in Edmonton, which was eighty years old, and the 
height of the flowering-ftem was twenty-one feet. 1 he 
top bud of the ftem appeared on the fixth of June, 1785 ; 
it was in full bloom on the twelfth of September, and out 
of bloom on the nineteenth. One blew in Holland fix 
years earlier, and another at Hampton Court the year be¬ 
fore it: there is a print alfo of thefe. In the botanic 
garden at Cambridge, there is a very large variegated 
agave, which came out of the Sherardian collection, at 
Eltham, and belonged to Dr. Walker, the founder of the 
garden. It muft therefore be more than fixty years old, 
and has not yet produced flowers. There are now hedges; 
of the common agave in Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Ca¬ 
labria: it flourilhes alfo about Naples, between Villa- 
franca and Monaco, and in other parts of Italy. 
The leaves of agave are very ufeful as a fuccedaneum 
for foap. For this purpofe, after being cut, they are 
pafted between the rollers of a mill with their points fore- 
moft; and, the juice being conducted into wide fiiallow 
3 receivers, 
