C 17 ] 



inch to 1 1 in. apart, red-brown, very small but sharp, base 

 inconspicuous, seated ou a deltoid prolongation of the light 

 green leaf edge, terminal spine half an inch long and more, 

 with a shallow channel, not decurrent, blackish, very sharp, 

 inclining backwards. 



[For the inflorescence, which we have not seen, we are 

 indebted to Mr. J. G. Baker (in Kew Bulletin, July- Aug. 1893, 

 CCLVII False Sisal) as follows, 



Peduncle with panicle about five times as long as the leaves. 

 Panicle 8 10 feet long, with a rather flexuose axis, and 

 usually single dense clusters of flowers terminating the 

 laxly- disposed simple arcuate branches. 

 Ffowers arrange 1 in dense clusters. Ovary oblong, finally 

 2 in. long, | in. diam. Perianth greenish-yellow, an 

 inch long ; tube broadly funnel-shaped ; lobes complicate 

 lanceolate from a dilated base, twice as long as the tube. 

 Stamens 1821 lines long, inserted at the middle of the 

 perianth tube ; anthers linear i inch long. Styles finally 

 reaching to the top of the stamens.] 



Cultivated pnly in Botanical and Horticultural Gardens at Calcutta, Saharan- 

 pur and Lahore: naturalized in Florida with A. Sisalana Perrine ; native 

 country unknown. 



From Karwinski's description quoted by Kunth (Enum. 



V. 835) A. Ixtli Karwinski, a native of Yucatan, should be 



very near this species. The plant sometimes termed A. Ixtli 



in Indian Gardens has nothing to do with Karwinski's plant 



or with A. decipiens Baker. 



The best known of the fibres called "Istle" or "Ixtli" in 

 Mexico (" Tampico fibre " of the trade) is not derived from any 

 Euagave and has nothing in common with Karwinski's A. Ixtli 

 except the name. The Istle which has been identified by Spon 

 and others with Bromelia sylvestris or Nidularium Carata* is 

 of course altogether distinct, but Mr. Dodge has perhaps not 

 hit on the correct solution of the puzzle. Mr. J. G. Haruey, 

 writing from the state of Vera Cruz, informs us that the Ixtii of 

 that region is a Bromeliad which yields a good fibre. The 

 confusion has arisen from forgetting that a vague vernacular 

 name may cover half a dozen different species utilised in as 

 many different areas. 



A. Ixtli, Salm (of Qarteuflora 1833 p. U9 cum fig. p. 150), 

 is identified with "A. .Karwinskti, Zucc. 11 Kunth? s Enum. V. 



