﻿LITERATURE OF FURCRAEA WITH SYNOPSIS OF SPECIES. 33 



natural histor}^, products, and travel in Colombia and the 

 adjoining countries, from which it appears that Cabuya is the 

 term commonly applied throughout that region to the species 

 of Furcraea, but in parts of Colombia "Fique" is also used. 

 The "Cocaiza," or "Maguey de Cocuy" (there are several 

 other forms and spellings) of Venezuela is more doubtful; at 

 Caracas and Cumana "Maguey de Cocuy" is expressly said 

 on the authority of Humboldt (Nov. Gen. et Sp. i. p. 289, 

 an. 1815) to be Yucca acaulis, HBK. which as Dr. Trelease 

 has shown* was in reality a Furcraea. 



Our information as to the Agaveae of South America is as 

 yet imperfect. Specimens from the Cauca Valley (inland 

 Colombia) of the local Cabuya seem to be Furcraea gigantea, 

 and it was most likely the same plant which M. Ed. Andre 

 found being worked up for cordage at Vcnta Quemada be- 

 tween Cartago and Naranjo ("L'Amerique Equinoctiale " in 

 Tour de Monde, 1877, p. 116). Triana's specimen marked 

 "Fique or Cabuya" from the mountains towards Bogota, 

 about 9,000 feet above sea level, is an unknown species of 

 Furcraea; whereas "Pita" in the Andes seems to be commonly 

 reserved for one or more local species, probably not yet de- 

 scribed, of Agave. 



Matters have been complicated by the lax and shifting use 

 in different parts of South and Central America and in the 

 West Indian islands, of certain local or venacular expres- 

 sions, e. g. "Silk-grass," "Karatas," "Keratto," "Cara- 

 guata," and "Istlc" (often written, Spanish fashion, "Ixtli"). 

 "Caraguata" ("Caroata," "Grawatha," or "Karuata") 

 seems to be current chiefly in the upper Amazon and Orinoco 

 basins, and applied originally perhaps, as it certainly does 

 now, to various Bromeliaceae, but it has come to be attached, 

 in the Antilles at least, to one or more of the Furcraeas. 

 "Karatas" has a similar history, but in this case the applica- 

 tion to a Furcraea has arisen perhaps from a compiler's blun- 

 der. "Keratto" (or "Coratoe") in the Western Antilles is 

 unquestionably a yellow-blossomed Eu-Agave alHed to 



* Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. xiii. 114. (1902). 



