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forms in their earlier stages, above all the long and uncertain 

 period of maturity which marks all the Euagaves and most 

 Furcraeas have proved serious impediments to the study even 

 of living Agaves through public and private collections in 

 Europe and America. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that 

 the botanical information should be imperfect (cf. Zuccarini 

 PL Nov. vel Min. Cogn., Fate. /., Eatisbou 1832, p. 2). 



As regards the history of the economic species there is much 

 to be found in the great work of Martius (Flora Brasil. Vol. 

 III., pars /, pp. 190 197). Following him largely, we con- 

 clude that the early European voj'agers to the West India Islands 

 found the existing occupants getting sundry products from 

 different Agaveae and Bromeliacese and that certain kinds 

 were famous for their fibre, which was > worked up into various 

 commodities such as thread, coarse twine, nets, bags, and 

 cordage. " Floss " or tow was got from the leaves of a kind 

 which was known to the English adventurers as " Silk grans" 

 The dried tissue (medulla) of the flowering stem served for 

 tinder; while a kind of paper, or rather parchment, was 

 prepared from the same leaves that produced fibre for string- 

 making. From the "floss" cloth was woven. The leaves of 

 some species contain a detergent mucilage and both these and 

 the roots were ordinarily used for the same purposes as soap 

 until quite a recent period in the West Indies. (For medical 

 uses Martius (I.e.) and other authors cited by him may be 

 consulted.) 



Martius believes that the fibre plants and their products were 

 alike known to the Haitians comprehensively as " Heneyuen," 

 the corresponding term in the Carib dialects being "Pita" and 

 he suspects that the Carib Indians took at least one of the 

 Furcraeas, and the name Pita, to the shores of S. America. 



From Peter Martyr's account of San Domingo it would 

 seem that the word '* Maguei " or "Mangnai" also belonged to 

 the native language of Haiti. Be that as it may, the Span- 

 iards took the^names Pita and Maguey with them to the main- 

 land, and applied the latter to species of Agave which they 

 found abundantly cultivated on the table-land of Mexico for the 

 sake of the saccharine juice which the leaves distil when cut 

 just before "poling." The plant was known to the Aztecs as 

 Metl (a generic term) and the liquor as"Od/." Fermented 

 to a kind of cider (with the addition of a herb known as 



