CENTURY PLANTS. 
BY WILLIAM falconer. 
, BNTURY Plants are common favor¬ 
ites, they always look so fresh and 
plump) Jiricl they ar© so accommo- 
dating and easily cared for. In 
the window-garden, small speci¬ 
mens may do duty as decorative 
plants the whole season long, or you may set them out- 
of-doors during the Summer months, and lay them 
aside in the cellar for the Winter season it mat¬ 
ters little; they live and thrive and appear grateful for 
an existence. In vases, painted pots, half nail-kegs or 
scalded hutter-fii'kins, we set our Century Plants, and 
place them on either side of our door steps, or on pedes¬ 
tals in little flower beds, and let vines grow up and 
among their leaves; or we may stud them in carpet and 
“ succulent ” beds, as we often see them used in public 
parks and cemeteries. 
Century Plants, botanically known as Agave, are in¬ 
digenous to California, Utah, Texas, Mexico, and some 
other parts, but most of all to Mexico. The common 
Century Plant or Ameiican Aloe (Agave Americana) is 
the large-leaved one most common in cultivation, and 
the common variegated one, whose variegation is a 
wide yellow band along the edges of the leaves, also 
another one with a broad yellow marking along the 
middle of the leaf, are only varieties of it. Its name 
would lead one to believe that it blossoms but once in a 
hundred years, but that impression is all nonsense; ac¬ 
cording to its manner of living, artificial or natural, it 
may blossom when ten years old, or it may be many 
years older. There is another misundemtanding in re¬ 
gard to its flowering, namely, that when it blossoms it 
dies. Well, the sprout from which the flower stem was 
produced dies, as a rule, but a multitude of sprouts come 
up all around, as in the case of a Golden-Bod or a 
Banana, and which perpetuate the plant ad infinitum. 
But there are some species, like Scolymns, that are not 
apt to bear suckers, hence in their case the plant does 
die after blooming, unless the buds at the base of the 
leaves grow out. 
Again, there are some that bloom and then tlu’ow out 
a top side-shoot as*an Aloe-leaved Yucca does; we have 
a specimen of mierantha now in that condition. A, 
vivipara sometimes produces little plants on its flower- 
spike after the flowers are faded, somewhat after the 
style of bulblets of a Tiger-Lily. 
AJI Century Plants are easily raised from seeds, but 
seed are not always to be had. 
There are a great many kinds of Century Plants or 
Agaves, and, in their way, most of them are decorative. 
Some have large hooked and contorted spines along the 
edges of their leaves, as in the case of Ferox, Gilbeyi and 
Horrida; some have no spines at all, for instance Olau- 
eescens and EUemetiana ; some form dense rosettes as 
Versehaffdtii ; others rise on tall stems as Shawii, or ex¬ 
tend their fierce contorted leaves inelegantly like Xylor 
canflia,; some have long strap-shaped leaves, as Yuo- 
etsfolia and Ixixa ; others a mass of sliort, narrow, rigid 
foliage as Hystrix; Fttifera, Filamentosa and Schidir 
gera. are fu r n ish ed with white thread or shaving-like 
filaments that add much to their ornamental appear¬ 
ance. The color of the leaves varies in different kinds, 
some are pale gi-een, others deep green, glaucous or 
bluish gi'een; and the color of the spines is equally 
variable—wliitish, yellowisli, brown or black. 
Besides this section of Agaves, whose leaves are as 
permanent as their life, there 
is another section known as . 
herbaceous, whose leaves die 
off every year, as is the case 
with A. Virginica, which is a 
hardy plant and blossoms every 
year. 
The blossoms of Agaves are 
mostly of a whitish-green, 
greenish-yeUow or purplish 
hue, and according to the sec¬ 
tion may be produced in dense 
spikes (as shown in om- illustra¬ 
tion), or on telegi'aph-pole like 
spikes, with, at the top, hori¬ 
zontally disposed arms ; in this 
fashion the common Century 
Plant blossoms. Some sorts as 
Fensifiora scad Yuoocefolia 
bloom frequently. Just before 
flowering, the young inner 
leaves, instead of being wide 
and full like the outer ones, are 
narrower and often shorter. 
Century Plants need no spe¬ 
cial treatment. In potting 
them use good loamy soil, with 
a little weU-rotted manure in 
it, and pack the soil firmly. 
Sand, gravel, lime-rubbish, 
pounded bricks and leaf mold 
are quite uimecessary, perhaps 
worse than useless, as peat cer¬ 
tainly is. They do not require 
repotting every year, unless 
you wish for big plants. They 
like lots of water, and a little 
manure-water now and again, 
if you will, during the Summer, 
but very little water indeed, if 
any, in "Winter. And they will 
thrive well enough on stinted 
Summ^ measure. They do 
not like to he exposed during 
prolonged wet muggy weather, 
nor is it well to let them get 
frozen; still, many of them 
will bear a few degrees of frost 
with impunity. By planting 
I them out in Summer, and 
“lifting and potting them for 
"Winter, large plants are soon 
secured; but I question if this is good policy, except in 
the case of weakly plants, as they appear brot and pretr 
