1^2 tup: tropical world. 



fleshy, and inflexible leaves. They generally stand solitary in 

 the parched plains, and impart a peculiarly austere or melan- 

 clioly character to the landscape. The real aloes are chiefly 

 African, but the American yuccas and agaves have a similar 

 physiognomical character. The Agave americana, the usual 

 ornament of our hot-houses, bears on a short and massive stem 

 a tuft of fleshy leaves, sometimes no less than ten feet long, 

 fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick ! After many years 

 a flower-stalk twenty feet high shoots forth in a few weeks from 

 the heart of the plant, expanding like a rich candelabrum, and 

 clustered with several thousands of greenish-yellow aromatic 

 flowers. But a rapid decline succeeds this brilliant efflorescence, 

 for it is soon followed by the death of the exhaus.ted plant. 



In Mexico, where the agave is indigenous, and whence it has 

 found its way to Spain and Italy, it is reckoned one of the most 

 valuable productions of Nature. At the time when the flower- 

 stalk is beginning to sprout, the heart of the plant is cut out^ 

 and the juice, which otherwise would have nourished the 

 blossom, collects in the hollow. About three pounds exude 

 daily, during a period of two or three months. After standing 

 for a short time, the sweet juice undergoes a vinous fermenta- 

 tion, and the stranger, when once accustomed to its disagreeable 

 odour, prefers the pulque to all other wines, and joins in the 

 enthusiastic praises of the Mexican. 



The American bromelias likewise resemble the aloes of 

 torrid Africa by the form and arrangement of their leaves. To 

 this useful family belongs the pine-apple (Bromelia Ananas), 

 which grows best and largest in Brazil, where it is so common 

 that the pigs fatten on the fruit. Formerly confined in our 

 country to the tables of the wealthier classes as long as it was 

 only supplied by our hot-houses, it can now be enjoyed at a 

 very moderate expense, since thousands are imported by every 

 West Indian steamer. 



The leaves of several species of bromelia furnish excellent 

 twine for ropes. The inhabitants of the banks of the river San 

 Francisco, in Brazil, weave their fishing-nets with the fibres of 

 the Caroa {B. variegata), and the filaments of the Crauata de 

 rede {B. sagenaria) furnish a cordage of amazing strength and 

 durability. 



The foliage of the screw-;pines, so widel}^ extended over the 



