NOTES ON AGAVE AND FuRcm IN INDIA 



[Dictionary of Economic Products, 

 Vol. /, A. 602-638; Vol. Ill, F. 749~\ 



Br J. R. DKUMMOND A^D D. PRAIN. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



WHAT is often called " Aloe -fibre " collectively is obtained 

 in India from different plants assigned to the genera 



(1) Sansevieria . . Nat. ord. Haemodoraceae 



(2) Agave ... Amaryllideae 



(3) Furcraea ... Ditto 



Sansevieria yields " Bowstring Hemp " and is dealt with 

 in Kew Bulletin 4, April 1887, to which nothing need be added 

 here except that one or more Sansevierias appear to have 

 meantime come into commercial use in India. 



The object of this paper is to clear up so far as possible 

 certain questions of botanical identity with regard to those forms 

 of (2) and (3) that are domesticated in this country, and we have 

 accordingly dealt with their history in some detail in another 

 part of the paper. For those who may care to know our 

 conclusions, without following all the steps that have led up to 

 them, the first part will, we hope, be found useful; though it 

 necessarily anticipates a good deal that is more fully discussed 

 in the second. 



PART I. DESCRIPTIVE. 



THE first part includes 



(a) a brief general description of the genera Agave 



and Purcraaa, limited however as regards the 

 former to the section Euagave; 



(b) a description of those * species which are naturalized 



in India, or cultivated for their fibre, with a key 

 to the species of Euagave ; 



(c) remarks on certain of the species known in India. 



* Also of one species which is neither naturalized nor grown for fibre, 

 viz,, the "False Sisal," 



