standing the difference in climate, and have produced shoots, 

 which were by me transmitted to New Orleans. Humboldt 

 says that this plant has become wild since the sixteenth cen- 

 tury throughout all the South of Europe, the Canary Islands, 

 and the Coast of Africa; and this fact supports my decided 

 opinion that all the valuable species of the same genus may 

 be successfully cultivated in our Southern States. 



" Two varieties of that species, which I take the liberty 

 to christen Agave Sisalana, have long been cultivated in the 

 vicinity of Merida, on an extensive scale. Different quantities 

 and qualities of fibres are obtained from several kinds of ' 5^5- 

 quir which grow spontaneously through the whole peninsula 

 of Yucatan; iDut the planters give the preference to the Sacqui 

 and Yaxqui of the natives, or the whitish and greenish ' Hene- 

 quen.^ The young plants are placed about twelve Spanish 

 feet apart, and during the first two years some labour is em- 

 ployed to destroy the weeds between them. In the third 

 year, the cutting of the lower rows of leaves is commenced, 

 and every four months the operation is repeated. Each 

 robust plant will thus give about seventy-five leaves annually, 

 from which are extracted about seven pounds and a half of 

 fibres, and will continue yielding these crops from five to ten 

 years in succession ; it is, however, generally cut down as 

 soon as one of the shoots from its roots has grown sufficiently 

 to supply its place : its other offspring are previously re- 

 moved to form new plantations. The hardiness of the shoots 

 may be inferred from the fact that they are exposed to the 

 sun fifteen or twenty days ' to cicatrize their wounds,' as a 

 necessary preparation for replanting. The simplicity of their 

 cultivation may be conceived from the statement that there 

 is not a hoe, nor a spade, nor a harrow, nor a plough, em- 

 ployed in the agriculture of all Yucatan. The facility of 

 extracting the fibres from their leaves is shewn by the rude- 

 ness of the instruments which are used by natives for that 

 purpose : a triangular stick of hard wood, with sharp edges, 

 from 24 to 27 inches long, and from one to two inches thick, 

 is with them an equivalent to the shaving-knife of the 

 curriers, by which they scrape away from each side of the 

 leaf, on a Iboard resting against the breast, the cuticle and 

 pulpy substance that covers the fibres. Another mode of 

 accomplishing the same object is, by pressing the sharp 

 semilunar extremity of a long flat stick against any fixed sur- 



