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" Tampico" or "Lechegmlla " fibre, however, is believed to be 

 got from species that do not belong to Furcraea or Euagave, 

 and its chief interest for Indian workers lies in the circumstance 

 that " Ixtli" has been also reported as a name for certain 

 Yucatan species of Agave, with this consequence (among 

 others) that the well known " Sisal Hemp " (cultivated in the 

 Bahamas and the British East Indies) appears in some botani- 

 cal works as a variety of A. Ixtli Karwinski or of A. Karwimkii 

 Salm. As the descriptive list of species will have shewn, we 

 propose to call the true Sisal Agave of Florida and India 

 A. sisalana, Per rim (ex Engelmann) or more briefly 

 A. sisalana, Perrine. 



The species included in our brief Descriptive List are not 

 of course of equal economic value : B= Agave americana Linn., 

 is not naturalized apparently in any part of India, but is grown 

 in gardens and about houses as an ornament, the particoloured 

 kinds .being in vogue chiefly. Small articles have been made 

 from its fibre as curiosities, or for exhibition purposes, but 

 this species does not seem to be grown or utilized for 

 economic purposes in India, or indeed anywhere. When 

 "A. americana" is spoken of as a "Fibre Aloe," some other 

 species almost always is intended. 



There is a widespread idea that there is quite a number of 

 varieties of "Agave americana" There are several variations 

 of the leaf, e.g., with white bands along the edges, or a white 

 stripe down the middle, due to the industry of horticulturists, 

 but, like other Enagaves so far as we have seen, the essential 

 characters of this well known garden species are particularly 

 constant. 



The native country is unknown (A. De Candotte, Oeograph. 

 Botanique,p. 983), but may be in the W. India Islands. 



As regards the fibre of Agave D., i.e., A. Vera-Cruz 

 Miller, (= "A. lurida" of the Calcutta Garden) we have 

 practically no information. We believe that this is the Agave 

 which is naturalized on a great scale in S. Europe and N. 

 Africa ; in S. Europe it is often called "Agave americana" and 

 it was most likely the " A merican Aloe" of the earlier writers 

 till Linne appropriated the specific name for the garden plant of 

 N. Europe. In India it is established as a hedge plant in Bengal 

 and S. India ; there are specimens from the Bombay neigh- 

 bourhood also, but how far it may have run wild on that side 



