" civipara " of the Species Plantarum, but that is an utterly 

 ambiguous species not founded on living or Herbarium 

 material so far as we can discover, and the proper course is 

 to drop the name altogether. Miller's " mupara" which may 

 be the " vivipara " of some continental authors, is obscure, but 

 it was certainly remote from the plant of Wight and Buchanan, 

 and we have proposed Agave Wightii accordingly. 



There remains only " G " of the Descriptive List, the 

 u true sisal " which was introduced into Bengal some twelve 

 years ago, as explained in Bulletin No. 5, 1899 of this Depart- 

 ment (Agave sisalana). 



Under Part II, the history of this staple in America is fully 

 considered, and reasons stated for re-placing the present scienti- 

 fic name ("A, rigid a, var. sisalana ") by A. sisalana simply, 

 as was done indeed by Col. Prain in the Bulletin just quoted. 



About the same time that the Bengal Government was 

 bringing " Sisal " into N. India, it was being introduced into 

 the Mysore State as set out in an interesting note by 

 Mr. Cameron, Superintendent of Government Gardens, Ban- 

 galore, from which an extract is subjoined as follows : 



" Acting on my advice, and kindly assisted by the authori- 

 ties at Kew, the late Mr. Kicketts was able, in 

 1892, to import 5,000 plants direct from Florida. 

 Prior to this date a few plants of Agave rigida had 

 found their way into the Botanical Gardens, but it 

 is quite impossible that the variety Sisalana had 

 ever appeared in the Province before. We may 

 therefore take 1892 as the starting period of this 

 important cultivation. 



" The plants from Florida arrived in excellent condition 

 and were at once planted out in the Lai Bagh. In 

 view to hardening them off and inducing them to 

 reproduce their kind, it was decided to plant thickly 

 in a-n open field which had formerly been cropped 

 with ragi and other dry crops. The bulk of the 

 consignment was therefore laid down in a plot of 

 land measuring only of an acre. With exception 

 of occasional thinning out to relieve congestion 

 and meet small indents, the original plants 

 still remain in this position where they form an 

 overcrowded and conspicuous clump. Suckers were 



