Europe as that which is extracted from Acave leaves, which are some- 
times ten feet long, fifteen inches wide and eight thick, because it is not 
liable to twist ; though the fibre of the New Zealand Flax (Puormivm 
tena) excels it in tenacity. Twine, thread, and rope are made of it; 
the latter is employed in the mines, andyon the western coast, for rig- 
ging the ships. The common juice of the plant, or that which it yields 
when not about to.blossom, is highly caustic, and useful. forycleansing 
wounds ; while the thorny points of the leaves, like those of the Cactus, 
used to serve the Indians for nails.and needles. The Mexican priests 
were accustomed to inflict wounds in that manner on their breasts and 
arms by way of expiation, as.do the Buddhists.in, Hindostan.” 
Rarely as the American Aloe blossoms in this part of Europe, a friend 
of mine, who lately yisited the shores of the Mediterranean in the North 
of Spain, tells me, that the brown withered flowering stems often stand 
there as tall, strong, and thick as theymasts of small vessels in a harbour, 
and are sometimes used for thatching. The height of this stalk varies from 
twenty to forty feet, and. expands hiké arich candelabrum, its arms clas- 
tered with. golden yellow flowers, An extract from the foliage, when 
made into balls, will lather water like soap ; and, finally, the centre of 
the flower-stalk cut longitudinally is. by no means a bad substitute for 
the European razor-strop, owing to minute, particles of silex forming 
one of its’ constittients, in the same way asthe Dutth Rushes, or stems of 
the “Horsetail: (Equisetum) are employed to polish ivory afd brass, 
My friend, Witt1am Curisty, Esq., when writing from Guernsey last 
autumn (1837) says, “in this delightful climate,an AGave Americana 
is just coming into flower, in the street of St. Pierre Port. It is twenty-, 
five years old, and already thirty feet high; and has always stood in 
the open air, summer and winter, without any protection’! —/18°") 
~Desor. » Leaves radical,’ imbricated at’ the base, spreading ‘on all 
sides, sword-shaped, rigid, flat»or slightly; grooved above, convex be- 
neath, very acute, glaucous-green, sometimes, as in our wariety,, border- 
ed with yellow, the margin toothed. with short; strong spines, mucronate 
at the point: they are from four to six feet long. Scape from twelve 
(in our specimen) to twenty and _eyen forty feet high, erect, bearing a 
panicle of innumerable flowers in dense clusters. Perianth yellow- 
green, the tube for the greater. part/of its-length, incorporated with the 
germen, above which is a constriction : limb, deeply, cut into ,six linear- 
oblong, erect, obtuse segments. Filaments, inserted, on the short, free, 
portion of the tube, just below the segments, and. opposite to them; 
subulate, much exserted, a little compressed, Anthers linear, versatile, 
deep yellow. ‘Style filiform, sometimes’ about as'long as the stamens, 
sometimes) much shorter than they are: Stigma capitate; three-lobed : 
Germen obscurely triquetrous, three-celled;|the:cells many-ovuled. 9:1 | 
Hawg B OvVEH x 
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_ The principal 'figaré represonts the A eas mericdna’ froth the garden 
at Aiken Head, reduced one twenty-fourth partyof the matj-sizé++Fig, L, 
A Flower. 2. The same laid open. 3. Germen cut through transversely : of 
the nai. size. ‘ 
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