EXTRACT. 159 



consists of several varieties of the American aloe (Agave Americana), so 

 common in gardens, which has yellow, fascilled, and straight flowers, with 

 stamens twice as long as the divisions of the corolla. This must not be 

 confounded with the A. cubensis of Jacquin, (A. mexicana. Lamarck, A. odo- 

 rata, Persoon,) which has been erroneously supposed to be the metl or ma- 

 guay of Mexico, but which is extensively grown in the Caraccas, where it 

 is called magnay de cocuy. 



" These plantations extend wherever the Azl^que language is spoken ; 

 they cease to the north of Salamanca, and are seen in the greatest luxuri- 

 ance in the valley of Toluca and the plains of Cholala. There the agave 

 plants are set in rows, distant fifteen decimetres from one another. The 

 juice or sap, commonly called the honey, from its abundant sweetness, is 

 only afforded when the flowering stem is about to appear, so that it is oi 

 great importance to the cultivator to ascertain precisely at this period. Its 

 approach is indicated by the direction of the root-leaves, which the Indian 

 always watches and examines with great attention, and which, formerly re- 

 curved, suddenly take an upward direction, and approximate as if to enclose 

 the incipient flower stalk. The bunch of central leaves (corazon, the heart), 

 next assumes a livelier green, and lengthens considerably ; indications 

 which the natives assure me hardly ever fail, and to which may be added 

 several other less striking appearances in the general aspect of the plant. 

 Daily does the cultivator examine his agave plantations, to watch those in- 

 dividuals which promise to bloom, and if he himself entertains any doubt, 

 he appeals to the vilage sages, the old Indians, whose long experience gives 

 them an unerring precision both of touch and eye. 



"At eight years old or thereabouts the Mexican agave generally shows 

 signs of inflorescence, and then the collection of the juice for making pulque 

 begins. The bunch of central leaves, or corozon, is cut through, the in- 

 cision gradually enlarged aud covered by the side leaves, which are raised 

 up and tied together at their tips. In this cleft the sap of those parts which 

 were destined to form and nourish the gigantic flower stem is deposited, 

 and this vegetable spring flows for two or three months, and may be tapped 

 three times a day. The quantity of sap is enormous; and the more sur- 

 prising, as the agave plantations are always made by choice on the most 

 sterile soil, frequently on mere shelves of rock, scantily covered with vege- 

 table earth. Each plant is calculated to yield about one hundred and fifty 

 bottles; and at Pachuca, the value of a maguay, near flowering, is from 

 twenty to twenty five francs, or five piastres. Still, as with the Vine, which 

 may bear a greater or less quantity of grapes, the produce is apt to vary, 

 and cannot be precisely calculated. Instances have, however, been known, 

 of a parent bequeathing a platation of maguay worth from seventy to eighty 

 thousand piastres, 



" The cultivation of the agave is attended with many real advantages 

 above that of maize, wheat, or potatoes, as this sturdy harsh, and fleshy - 

 leaved plant is uninjured by the occasional drought, frost, and excessive 

 cold, which prevail in winter on the lofty Cordilleras of Mexico. It dies 

 after having flowered, or when the central bunch of leaves is cut away, and 

 then a number of suckers spring from the parent root, which increase the 

 plant with extraordinary rapidity. One acre of ground will contain from 

 twelve to thirteen hundred plants of maguay, of which it may be calculated 

 that one in every thirteen or fourteen is always affording honey. Thus the 

 proprietor who sets from thirty to forty thousand rnaguays is sure of leaving 

 his family rich; though a man must possess patience and resolution to de- 

 vote himself to cultivating what only becomes productive after an interval 

 of fifteen years. In good soil, the agave blossoms at the end of five years ; 

 while in poor grouud nothing can he expected under eighteen years ; and 

 any artificial means by which the flowering state is unnaturally accelerated, 

 only destroy the plant prematurely, or meterially lessen the amount ol 



