C 53 ] 



while at least, three kinds (all of Agave) that had been des- 

 cribed by prse-Linnean authors remain unidentified. The 

 localities mentioned in the old books give no certain clue, 

 because the writers did not distinguish between native species 

 and those naturalized or even between wild and cultivated 

 forms. 



Agave americana is believed by Martius (Fl. Brasil HI. P. I. 

 p. 187) to be a native of high mountains in Mexico, but his 

 authority is not given, and the plant was probably a different 

 one. Furcrsea tuberosa Ait., is reported by Seemann from the 

 slopes of Chiriqui, a volcano on the borders of Panama and 

 Costa Kioa. (Hemsley Biolog. Central Amer. I.e. app. p. 273.) A 

 statement by another traveller is quoted for the occurrence of 

 Agave americana wild in the same belt on Chiriqui at 4,000 

 8,000 feet above sea level, but Mr. Hemsley thinks that the 

 Furcraea may have been mistaken for it. We thiDk there can 

 be little doubt of this, and further that the Maguey cimarron 

 (i.e. wild maguey) seen by Schiede and Deppe in the " regio 

 frigida" of Mexico Proper, whatever it may have been, was not 

 true A, americana (Linnaea IV. 581). The very circumstance 

 that the Mexicans distinguish the mountain sort as wild shows 

 they are well aware that "die allbekannte A. americana" as 

 Dr. Schiede styles the Pulque Agave, is unknown except in 

 cultivation. 



Tne first account we can trace of any Agave in India Proper 

 is in a series of papers by Dr. W. Roxburgh which exists in two 

 forms ; one of these pamphlets was printed officially, the other 

 appears in the XXII . Yol. of the transactions of the Society of 

 Arts of London 1804 (which voted its thanks to the author), 

 under the title " Observations on the culture properties and com- 

 parative strength of Hemp, Sun, Jute, and other vegetable fibres 

 the growth of India. " 



In a comparative statement appended with the " Obser- 

 vations " we find ' Agave americana " given as No. 11 

 of the staples on which Roxburgh had conducted experi- 

 ments. 



In the official correspondence the eame plant is described as 

 a new Agave ; in both it is referred to as found wild in plenty, 

 though where is not stated, and there can be no doubt that the 

 species is that afterwards described in the Flora Jndica 

 (Ed. C. B. Clarke p. 296) as A. cantula. 



