240 Genei'al Notices. 



ncqiiirinp wealth wilhoiit care than that of phinting; to which he aiKlcd 

 spade labour, in (lifr^inj;, for seven years ; and always planted so as to make 

 the thinnings pay tor the labour, till all were safe and thriving." Among 

 other instances of successful planting, this gentleman says, " Colonel 

 Johnes, of Ihifod, was offered 100,000/. for woods he iiad planted for his 

 amusement." (Caiii/)ri(ni, July 9. IBIil.) 



T/ic Pita dc Guatacn, a Plant affording a vahcahle Fibre for Cordage, Sfc. — 

 Sir, Having been applied to for information as to where an account of the 

 plant which produces the valuable fibre known in ISouth America by the 

 name of the Pita de Guataca is to be found, I beg leave to send jou such 

 imperfect information as I possess upon the subject, for insertion in your 

 Magazine, as the fitting depository of every thing rare and valuable con- 

 nected with botany and horticulture. 



The Pita ])lant, of which the only specunens in Europe, of whose exist- 

 ence I am aware, are those in the possession of Mr. Pontey here, and one 

 which he exchanged with Mr. Lambert, of Boyton House, Wilts, was raised 

 in 1827 from seeds received from His Britannic Majesty's consul, Edward 

 Watts, Esq., at Carthagena, after a number of unsuccessful attempts ; suc- 

 cess being at last obtained by macerating the seeds in water for a week pre- 

 vious to sowing. The fruit of the plant is a head of capsules formed like 

 a small apple, and consisting of a number of capsules, shaped in a triangular 

 form, with the apex upwards, and enclosing from four to five seeds, of a 

 somewhat reniforni shape, and mostly hollow and abortive. Each capsule 

 is fortified by a strong coriaceous bractea, spinous at the margins, and w ith 

 a sharp point at the apex ; being, like the capsule, of a triangular shape. 

 These are clustered round a central receptacle, forming what is not inaptly 

 termed the Pita pine. From a specimen which I received in 1827 from 

 Carthagena, with about 6 in. of the scape adhering to it, I was able to 

 observe that the scape, which appeared to be a compact mass of fibres, 



Ijroduced more pines than one; evident marks remaining of a second pine 

 laving grown on the same scape, but removed, whether by accident or 

 design, I cannot say. The flower I have never been able to procure, and 

 my description of the pine, or fruit, is from recollection, the original 

 specimen having been sent to Dr. Hooker, who, I fear, never received it, 

 as he has never noticed it in his letters. I enclose, however, one of the 

 bracteaR, which I accidentally found in the b;ig in which I originally received 

 it. From the seed, however, it is evident that it can neither be a Pourr^t/n, 

 the seeds of which are winged ; a Pitcairnw, the seeds of which are cau- 

 date ; an Acanthospora, the seeds of which are cauilate ; a Tillandsw, the 

 seeds of which are pappose; a Guzmannw, the seetis of which are acumi- 

 nated ; a Bromi;h'a, the fruit of which is a berry ; nor an Anaiiussa, the fruit 

 of which is fleshy : differing, indeed, from almost the whole of these, in 

 having a iniilocular, not a trilocular, capsule. Neither do I imagine it to 

 belong to the genera Bilbtrgw or yEchma^'a, both of w Inch have berried 

 capsules Hence I am led to believe it belongs to some nondescript genus, 

 whose i)lace ought perhaps to be between (luzmanuffl (Spreng. Linn. Gen. 

 Plant, ed. 9. 1830, gen. 1297.) and Pourret»V/ (gen. 1298.); and I look with 

 anxiety to the flowering of some of our plants, which are now in their fifth 

 year. The plant grows wild, in the greatest abumlance, in the vicinity of 

 the vilhige of Guataca, in the province of C'arthagena; where its leaves 

 attain, as my intelligence from that (|uarter accjuaints me, a length of from 

 9 ft. to 12 ft., and a thickness of from .'Jin. to 4 in. These are linear lan- 

 ceolate, with recurved spines along the margin, and in appearance resemble 

 what I recollect of the Bromel/fl Penguin and Bromeli« Kardtas, both 

 plants connnon in the West Indies, and aHbnling, the latter especially, a 

 valuable fibre from their leaves ; but, in |)oint of length, the I'ita exceeds 

 them. It is from the leaves that the fibre is extracted by the barbarous 



