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Ta b . 5940.
AGAVE bes s e r i a n a .
Tropical America.
Nat. Ord, am a r y l l i d e æ.—Tribe. ag a v e æ .
Genus ag a v e , Linn.; (Endl. Gen. Plant., p. 181).
aga v e Besseriana; subcaulescens, foliis 3–6-pollicaribus anguste ellipticolanceolatis
crassissimis rigidis rectis viridi-glaucescentibus, supra
lente subtus valde convexis, spina terminali valida elongata marginalibusque
remotis uncinatis brunneis, vagina semilunari lamina latiore,
bracteis parvis sparsis triangulari-ovatis acutis scapo valido multoties
angustioribus inferioribus e basi lanceolata subulatis, floribus paucis
racemosis erectis 2-pollicaribus viridibus, perianthii tubo subcylindrico
lobis lingulatis erectis obtusis crassis longiore, antheris perianthii
segmentis subæquilongis exsertis erectis aurantiacis, stigmate obscure
lobato.
aga v e Besseriana, Jacobi in Hamburg Garten-und-Blumen-Zeitung, 1865, p.
155.
The Botanical Magazine has no higher function than that
of figuring such plants as are rarely known to flower in this
country, and are so difficult of preservation for scientific
purposes, or for future identification, that but for good coloured
plates they can scarcely ever be recognised. This remark
applies especially to Agaves, of which fifteen species
have now been illustrated in this work, a very small proportion
of the number supposed to exist in European collections.
Of these upwards of one hundred are enumerated by
Major General Jacobi’s “Versuch zu einen systematischen
Ordnung der Agaveen” (Ottos Hamburger Garten-und-Blumenzeitung,
1864), of which, however, comparatively few
have been described from flowering specimens, and many
may consequently prove to be mere forms.
A. Besseriana flowered in spring of the present year, in the
unique collection of W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., at Hillfield,
d e c e m b e r 1s T , 1871.