74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



world, where they are naturalized and abundant. They furnish 

 an excellent fibre called _^i^«, which is manufactured into a superior 

 and durable rope of great strength and power. This rope is stated 

 to have been subjected to a course of experiments in India, and 

 found to have been stronger than the productions of coir, country- 

 hemp and jute. A bundle of the agave-fibre bore 270 lbs. weight, 

 and that of ].lussian hemp only 160 lbs. It is a famous hedge- 

 plant, and is much used for that purpose at the Cape of Good 

 Hope and in the East. Loudon informs us that it is either wild 

 or acclimated in Sicily, the south of Spain and in Italy. It is 

 abundant in the West Indies, and Humboldt says that it is 

 common everywhere in equinoctial America, from the plains even 

 to elevations of 10,000 feet. 



In Mexico, where it is sometimes called maguey, a liquor is 

 obtained from its juice, which, when fermented, is known as 

 pulque; and from this is distilled an ardent spirit named aguar- 

 diente de maguey. The leaves of one kind are, acccording to 

 Mollhausen, baked and eaten under the appellation of mezcal, and 

 they are elsewhere used to make paper of, as also an excellent and 

 impenetrable thatch. It is said that the juice possesses strong 

 healing properties, and, in Jamaica, Long tells us that a species 

 of soap is prepared from it. 



I have often employed strips of the dried flower-stem — which 

 is a light, pith-like substance — instead of cork for the lining of 

 insect cases ; and Bennett records the same use of it in Australia. 

 He also says that, owing to the minute particles of silica which it 

 contains, razor-strops are made of it in that country ; and I have 

 possessed and used with great success several that were brought 

 from the West Indies. Chapman, in his poem called Barhadoes, 

 speaks of this plant as the May-pole. 



" Here, towering in its pride, the May-pole glows, 

 "Whose pointed top a bee swarmed circlet shews 

 Of waving yellow ; whose high-branched stem 

 Takes back the rapt thought to Jerusalem, 

 Shewing the candlestick that stood of old 

 In the first temple, chased in purest gold." 



The Agave belongs to the nat. ord. AmarylUdacece, and the 

 name is derived from agaus, regal. 



Seeds of the Gela (Untada purscetha, DeC.) — This is 

 an enormous climbing plant of the nat. ord. Leguminosoe. Its 

 stem, which is thick, rope-like and very long, ascends to the 



