120 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



ECONOMIC USES. 



In contrast with the Aloineae, the Yucceae possess very 

 fibrous leaves comparable with those of the agavoid Amaryl- 

 lidaceae, and local use is made of the fiber* almost every- 

 where that the plants grow. In the southeastern United 

 States, and as far west as the Indian Territory, the leaves 

 of species of Yucca of the filamentosa group, commonly 

 called " bear-grass," are much used for domestic purposes 

 such as making seats for chairs and especially hanging meat, 

 for which they are so much prized in the country that the 

 plants are commonly tolerated as weeds in cultivated fields 

 from which other wild plants are eradicated. In Mexico 

 and our southwestern states the fiber of several of the bac- 

 cate species is crudely cleaned and put to various local uses, 

 cordage included. f The long leavesof " palma loca " ( Y. 

 Treculeana), with coarse fiber, and "izote" ( Y. Schottii 

 Jaliscensis} , with fine fiber, are apparently of considerable 

 use in this manner, respectively in the eastern and western 

 parts of Mexico. About the Carneros pass, where it is 

 very abundant, Samuela Carnerosanais similarly used, and 

 Dr. Millspaugh informs me that Ifesperaloe funifera is re- 

 ported as planted for its fiber about Bustemente, in the 

 Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. The fiber of Hesperoyucca 

 is said by Palmer (/. c.)to be fine and excellent. Cleaning 

 the fiber of all of these plants appears to be attended with 

 the general difficulties that make the commercial preparation 

 of Agave fibers unsatisfactory, but I have seen machine- 

 cleaned fiber of Yucca australis that appeared fairly good, 

 and it may be that notwithstanding its shortness the fiber 

 of these abundant large palma trees of the Mexican table- 

 land will ultimately be used in quantity for the cheaper 

 kinds of bagging, etc. 



* See Naudin, Kev. Hort. 1855: 141-9. Porcher, Resources of So. 

 Fields and Forests. 530-1. 



t Palmer, Amer. Journ. Pharmacy. 50 : 586. 



