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Ocpatli] *, it was, and is, the national beverage of Mexico 

 "Pulque" or " Pulco". A spirit is said to be made from the 

 same secretion, and known as "Aguardiente" i.e., "Firewater." 



Another name, in the Islands especially, was Caraguata, 

 Karato, or Curaga which applied particularly, it would seem, to 

 the Furcraea tuberosa. 



" Pati" according to Hernandez was the Mexican name for 

 a Metl which produced the finest fibre, or tow, and was pro- 

 bably the mainland equivalent of " Henequen." 



The term "Pita" has spread over the world and has been 

 embodied even in the dialects of S. India. 



Kecent American investigations have shown (/. JV. Rose in 

 Contrib. U. S. National Herbarium, Vol. V. p. 223) that there are 

 several species of Euagave which yield " Pulque" but the princi- 

 pal appears to be the A. atrovirens of Baron Karwinski, which 

 is identified by several continental botanists with A. Salmiana 

 of Otto. From the descriptions as well as from photographic 

 illustrations that accompany Mr. Rose's paper, this form must be 

 closely allied to A. lurida H. B. C., but abundantly distinct from 

 A. americanaof Linnaeus. As regards spirit yielding Agaves, 

 Mr. Rose states that the spirit is now called "mescal" or 

 " tequila" and he adds " while it is uncertain from what species 

 tequila is made, it is at amj rate not A. americana." Sotol, another 

 alcoholic preparation which the traveller Lumholtz derived from 

 a plant " of the same family as A. americana," is produced, not 

 from any Agave at all, but from a Dasylirion. Hernandez 

 figures a " Mexcal " that looks like the " Agave Gilbeyi " of 

 gardens ; which is not an Euagave. 



One other native term requires mention, vis., that of Ixtli 

 or " Istle " which is often applied to the plants that yield the 

 product known commercially as " Tampico fibre " from the town 

 of export. Recent information as to these will be found in 

 Mr. Rose's " Notes on Useful Plants of Mexico " (Contrib. U. S. 

 National Herbarium, V. p. 2b) already quoted, as well as 

 about other fibre plants of Central America, but the fact is that 

 there is not a single fibre-yielding species of the AgaveaB or 

 Bromeliaceae, to say nothing of Yucca, that can be said to 

 have been as yet sufficiently identified. 



* In a recent publication this is said to be Datura Stramonium Linn., 

 which is improbable ; though it may be some other species of Datura. 



