Mortol. 11, p. 8358; non Jacobi. A. rigida, Hort. ex Berger in Gartenwelt, 
vol. ii. p. 604 cum figura, ex parte. A. Ixtli, Hort. A. longifolia, Hort. 
—A. BERGER. 
The Agave here figured from material supplied from a 
plant that poled in 1914 in the garden of Lady Hanbury at 
La Mortola, Ventimiglia, Italy, though a species that is 
neither new nor rare, fully deserves a place in this work 
on account of its great economic interest. It is the 
species which supplies from its leaves the fibre known as 
Henequen, a material which rivals in its qualities and 
value, and is perhaps at times confused with the now 
more familiar fibre known as Sisal. The Henequen plant 
is a native of Yucatan in which province of Mexico 
it is also largely cultivated. From thence it has now 
spread to most countries with a tropical or semitropical 
climate, and where it is not grown for the sake of its 
fibre it is used as an effective hedge-plant, or as a 
decorative subject in gardens. It is singular that 
nothing should be known with certainty as to when or 
by whom this species was first introduced to cultivation 
in Europe, and even its introduction as an economic 
species is obscure. It is difficult to believe that this 
species and its rival A. sisalana were unknown to Jacobi, 
yet there is no description by that author which agrees 
entirely with either plant. As regards A. sisalana the 
same is true of Lemaire, and it is only because Professor 
Trelease has been able to associate Lemaire’s name 
A. fourcroydes with the species now figured that we believe 
Lemaire to have known the Henequen, for the original 
description of the plant leaves this doubtful. Until 
Trelease thus vindicated the name Lemaire had _pro- 
posed, the nomenclature of the Henequen was somewhat 
confused ; other authors, unwilling to establish a new 
species, have endeavoured to associate the Henequen with 
A, rigida, Mill., A. elongata, Jacobi, A. candelabrum, Todaro, 
and yet other species from which it differs very markedly. 
A. foureroydes belongs to the subgenus Euayave, and 
within this its affinities are with the Sisalanae. group of 
the Jigidae, among which it is characterised by its 
narrow leaves and non-decurrent end-spine. Reproduc- 
tion is singularly well provided for in this species. The 
