578 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. XXXIII 



the preparation of a beverage. The agave is a wonder of the vege- 

 table kingdom, ranking with the palm as a foster mother of tribes 

 struggling upward with her help. When one recognizes the benefits 

 the agave confers on man, there seems good ground for the generali- 

 zation that without tliis plant the great population and the civiliza- 

 tion of the high plateau of Mexico would have been impossible; for 

 with the agave a civilization without cereals was feasible which was 

 attended with economics of the highest value for promoting advance- 

 ment. What wire is to modern civilization the fiber of the agave 

 was to ancient Mexican culture. No country had a greater variety 

 of material for cordage or textiles than was furnished to the Mexican 

 tribes by the agave and related indigenous plants. With every step 



Fig. 1. 



-Region near Tunol, Dur.\ngo, Mexico; agaves in foreground, prickly pear in middle 



GROUND. 



in advance tliia plant became mpre usefid, and in the stage of the 

 cultivation of cereals to which the Mexicans had attained, the agave 

 was, as it is now, indispensable to the well-being of Mexico. The 

 benefits of the agave require too much time to enlarge upon in tliis 

 place, however interesting, and must be hinted at by examples during 

 the course of tliis paper. 



While the agaves are, as a rule, scattered as solitary individuals or 

 exist in groups of individual plants among other vegetation, there are 

 in some localities vast natural fields, self-planted and self-perpetua- 

 ting. Such fields may be observed around San Luis Potosi and in 

 Durango, where the Agave, Opuntia, Echinocacti, and Mamillaria 

 form a remarkable characteristic vegetation. There, primitive fields, 



