Potted Agave in USNM Rotunda

United States National Museum Photographic Laboratory · 1885

One of a series of plants given to the USNM by W.R. Smith of the U.S. Botanical Gardens for the purpose of growing in the rotunda of the Museum. The agave species did not thrive, as documented in a series of photographs taken between April and May of 1885, but did bloom during the summer. The living plants were cared for by A.L. Schott, assistant in the Department of Recent Plants.