cultivation essentially consists in appropriate irrigation^ which 

 goes far to counterbalance the sterility of the soil." 



The following are extracts selected from among Dr. 

 Perrine's reports : — 



" The Agave Americana is still called by travellers the 

 American aloe ; and Doctor Mease, with them, has been 

 misled to suppose that this plant produces the Sisal hemp, 

 and the Pita a much finer material : but the Agave Ameri- 

 cana is dedicated to a very different production — the cele- 

 brated drink called ^ Pulqve,' derived from the sap of its 

 stem ; and hence Maguey de Pulque is its common name in 

 Mexico. A direct tax on the consumption of this beverage 

 forms an important item in the revenue of that country. 

 ' The entry duties paid in the three cities of Mexico, Tolusa, 

 and Puebla, amounted, in 1793, to the sum of 817,739 

 piastres.' Humboldt was correct in affirming of the Maguey 

 de Pulque, ' that its cultivation has real advantages over the 

 cultivation of maize, grain, and potatoes ; that it is neither 

 affected by drought nor hail, nor the excessive cold which 

 prevails in winter on the higher cordilleras of Mexico ; that 

 it grows in the most arid grounds, and frequently on banks 

 of rocks hardly covered wnth vegetable earth ; and that it is 

 one of the most useful of all the productions with which 

 nature has supplied the mountaineers of equinoctial America.' 

 But it is not true that the same plant produces the very fine, 

 very strong, and very long fibres, known by the name of 

 Pita, from which the most beautiful sewing thread is made ; 

 nor does it furnish those coarser fibres for twine and cordage, 

 resembling Manilla, but denominated Sisal hemp. If tropical 

 hemp be an admissible term for the latter, the former may be 

 honoured w-ith the distinction of tropical flax. The Ixtla, 

 whose thin leaves afford the pita, grows wild in the shade of 

 the fertile forests of Tabasco. The Sosquil 6 Henequin, whose 

 thick leaves yield the Sisal hemp, is cultivated in the sun of 

 the sterile plains of Yucatan. The stem of neither supplies 

 the drink which constitutes the principal value of the Agave 

 Americana ; nevertheless, a variety of the Maguey de Pulque 

 does grow^ on the tropical shores of the Gulf of Mexico, from 

 which the highland soldiers have occasionally extracted their 

 favourite beverage. Some of the cultivated Magueys 

 brought from a plantation on the mountains to the garden of 

 a gentleman in Campeachy, are there flourishing, notwith- 



