AGAVE 



Species and 

 Varieties 



Cultivated Sisal. 



THE SPECIES OF AGAVE 



Basin. 



Inferior Aloe 

 Fibre. 



A sisalana, Perrine. The True Sisal Hemp Plant of India, Australia, the 

 Pacific Islands, etc. This was introduced on various occasions between 1885 

 and 1892. It is cultivated in Burma, Cachar, Sylhet, Assam, Bengal, N.W. 

 India (as far as Lahore), Central India, Bombay, the Deccan (Poona), Mysore 

 and Madras (Bellary). Original stock, obtained from cultivation in Yucatan, 

 conveyed in 1834 to Florida and other parts of America, thence to the West 

 Indies and finally to India. There are forms with the leaves having the margins 

 spinose and others naked, but these conditions may be found on the same plant, 

 so that they are not varietal in value. The seedlings and bulbils of both forms 

 are spinose. There is but one form of sisal in all India. Mr. Cameron fixes 

 its introduction into Mysore in the year 1892. He mentions that the Lai 

 Bagh of Bangalore had recently sold from its stock 45,000 plants. [Cf. 

 Drummond and Prain, I.e. 83, 89-90, 96, 99, 103, 117, 135, 143-7; also Proc. 

 Agri.-Hort. Soc. Mad., 1903, 44-6.] 



A. Vera Cruz, Miller, Diet. Gard. (ed. 8), 1768, No. 7. Possibly this plant 

 came originally from Mexico. It is naturalised throughout Southern Europe, 

 in most of the Mediterranean Islands and in N.W. Africa, but has not been 

 recorded from S.E. Europe or the Orient, etc. This would seem to be the 

 A. anifricaun of Clusius, and of most writers prior to the time when Linnaeus 

 restricted that name to the special ornamental garden plant. It has been 

 called A. inriiJti by some writers (but is not -* turifta, Jacquin), Intro- 

 duced into India from the Chelsea Physic Garden by Lord Auckland during 

 1836, and looked on by Wallich as doubtfully distinct from A. " itit-itia." 

 Recorded as met with here and there practically all over India, but more 

 The Agave of the especially in the Eastern Peninsula. Is spoken of as frequent in the Gangetic 

 Lower Gangetic plains north to Cawnpore, used for hedging and luxuriates in Calcutta 

 gardens, but rapidly disappears from all localities subject to occasional frosts, 

 It stands a moist atmosphere more successfully than do most other species, 

 and has become naturalised in Mysore. The fibre has not been separately 

 reported on, so that its special properties, if any, are not at present known. [Cf. 

 Drummond and Prain, I.e. 80, 83, 86-7, 99, 106, 121, 126, 131, 140, etc.] The 

 above may be given as a conspectus of the opinions held regarding this species. 

 Compiling from an extensive correspondence and comprehensive series of 

 practical (not botanical) opinions, it would appear highly probable that the fibre 

 of this plant has given origin to the low valuations of the so-called Aloe Fibre of 

 India. 



A. WIghtii, Prain; A. vivipara, Wight, Ic. PI. Ind. Or., vi., n. 2024; Baker, 

 Gard. Chron., n.s. 1877, viii., 780 (non Linn.). The Bastardi Aloe. This 

 is a well-known naturalised form in Southern, Central, Northern and Western 

 India. It is wrongly regarded by some as being A. Cantata, Roxb , and is 

 often spoken of as desi or " Native " owing to its being self-sown. It is easily 

 recognised by its round, compact rosette of pale-coloured rather stiff leaves. It 

 is widely spread in the drier tracts of India from Mysore to the Panjsib. It 

 extends to the extreme south and to the east of Bengal and Assam, but does 

 not thrive in damp countries. The fibre has been reported as good but 

 shorter than A. *i/n, and on that account is not so much in demand as 

 formerly. [Cf. Drummond and Prain, I.e. 91, 101-3, 123, 139, etc. ; Greengrass, 

 Letter in Madras Mail, 1903.] 



A. ? longisepala, Tod. This is species (H.) of Drummond and Prain (I.e. 90). 

 It is naturalised at Saharanpur, met with near Calcutta, and also in Southern 

 India and N.E. Burma, though nowhere on a large scale. It is distinguished 

 in Saharanpur as rambans keora, and is understood to be most probably the 

 plant that furnished the fibre favourably reported on so many years ago. It has 

 an acrid juice. 



[Cf. Martius, Fl. Brazil, 1842-71, iii., pt. i., 183-6; Terracciano, Monog. 

 delle Agave, 1885 ; Kew Bull, (numerous articles), 1887-92 ; Dodge, Rept. Sisal 

 Hemp Cult., U.S. Dept. Agri., 1891, No. 3; also Leaf Fibre of U.S., 1893; 

 Morris, Comm. Fibres, Cantor Lect. in Journ. Soc. Arts, 1895 ; Pinart et Bourgeois, 

 UAloe Amer., 1896; Dodge, Useful Fibre PI. of World,1897, 41-53 ; Text. Journ. 

 Ind., April 1899; Pioneer, Sept. 1899 ; Rogers, Ind. Gard., Nov. 1900 ; Ind. Agri., 

 Feb. 1901 ; Colon. Repta. (Bahamas), 1900, No. 327 ; Jumelle, Lea Cult. Colon. 

 (Indust.), 1901, 61-6; Capital, June 1902; Wiesner, Die Rohat. dea Pflanzenr., 

 1903, ii., 375-89 ; Dunstan, Imp. Inst., Tech. Repta., 1903, 58-9 ; Dewey, Prin. 

 Comm. PL Fibres, in U.S. Yearbook, 1903, 395 ; Philippine Bureau Agri., 1904, 

 No. 10.] 



34 



The Agave of 

 Drier Tracts. 



yields a Good 

 Fibre. 



