. Contributions from the National Herbarium. Plants; Plants. ROSE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN PLANTS. 91 About the year 1846, we received from Mr. Repper, of the Real del Monte Com- pany's establishment, Mexico, some remarkable plants in the form of tubers, ;i fool and half long, and nearly as high aboveground, the surface of which is formed by a number of wrinkled tubercles, slightly elevated, and somewhal circinately wrinkled; from a few of which appeared nuts of rigid, subulate leaves, I to 2 feel long, in form and texture resembling those of some Dasylirium. The general aspecl ol the
. Contributions from the National Herbarium. Plants; Plants. ROSE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN PLANTS. 91 About the year 1846, we received from Mr. Repper, of the Real del Monte Com- pany's establishment, Mexico, some remarkable plants in the form of tubers, ;i fool and half long, and nearly as high aboveground, the surface of which is formed by a number of wrinkled tubercles, slightly elevated, and somewhal circinately wrinkled; from a few of which appeared nuts of rigid, subulate leaves, I to 2 feel long, in form and texture resembling those of some Dasylirium. The general aspecl ol the tubers remind one of the well-known "Elephant's-foot" of South Africa, or ol remarkable I >ioscreae which we cultivate from Mexico. These remained dormanl for some years, but one of them has lately produced more copious tufts of foliage and panicles of flowers; and precisely accord (the female flowers are, however, wanting to our plants) with the Dasylirium Hartweaianum of Zuccarini, which Hartweg sent from Zacatecas, in Mexico; and a Dasylirium of Mr. Charles Wrighl ("Coll. L861 2"), n. L918, also seems to be identical; bul neither of these collectors has made a note on the nature of the plant, so that whether we are to consider this tuber as the normal condition of t lie stem or caudex of this species, or whether we arc to look upon it as an accidental c Election or congeries of united -terns (a kind of monstrosity >, still remains a doubt in our minds. All the Das} liria yel known to us have separate, unbranched, and distinct stems, more or less elongated, as in the caulescent species of Agave, and as may be seen in one figures of two of the species of this remarkable genus, at our Tab. 5030 and Tab. 5041. The flowers of t he pani- cles develop themselves very slow ly, and the w ithered stalks and branches remain a long time attached to the trunk. Mr. Bentham compares this plant with the Cordyline longifoliaoi II. B. K.: but the very large,
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