ee a 
120 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
ECONOMIC USES. 
In contrast with the Aloineae, the Yucceae possess very 
fibrous leaves comparable with those of the agavoid Amaryl- 
lidaceae, and local use is made of the fiber* almost every- 
where that the plants grow. In the southeastern United 
States, and as far west as the Indian Territory, the leaves 
of species of Yucca of the jfilamentosa group, commonly 
called ** bear-grass,’’ are much used for domestic purposes 
such as making seats for chairs and especially hanging meat, 
for which they are so much prized in the country that the 
plants are commonly tolerated as weeds in cultivated fields 
from which other wild plants are eradicated. In Mexico 
and our southwestern states the fiber of several of the bac- 
cate species is crudely cleaned and put to various local uses, 
cordage included.t The long leavesof ‘* palma loca’’ ( Y. 
Treculeana), with coarse fiber, and ‘‘izote’’ (Y. Schottit 
Jaliscensis), with fine fiber, are apparently of considerable 
use in this manner, respectively in the eastern and western 
parts of Mexico. About the Carneros pass, where it is 
very abundant, Samuela Carnerosana is similarly used, and 
Dr. Millspaugh informs me that Hesperaloe funifera is re- 
ported as planted for its fiber about Bustemente, in the 
Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. The fiber of Hesperoyucca 
is said by Palmer (/. c.)to be fine and excellent. Cleaning 
the fiber of all of these plants appears to be attended with 
the general difficulties that make the commercial preparation 
of Agave fibers unsatisfactory, but I have seen machine- 
cleaned fiber of Yucca australis that appeared fairly good, 
and it may be that notwithstanding its shortness the fiber 
of these abundant large palma trees of the Mexican table- 
land will ultimately be used in quantity for the cheaper 
kinds of bagging, etc. 
* See Naudin, Rev. Hort. 1855: 141-9. — Porcher, Resources of So. 
Fields and Forests. 530-1. 
+ Palmer, Amer. Journ. Pharmacy. 50 : 586. 
