grant of land, but which were destroyed, together 

 with his own life, during the subsequent Indian 

 wars. With this Agave, however, he has been suc- 

 cessful, as it is now fully naturalized, and is quite 

 abundant at Key West and the adjacent coast." 



The assumption underlying certain of the conclusions just 

 quoted, that the Agavese are prone to vary within rather wide 

 limits has influenced systematists undoubtedly, but no evidence 

 has ever been recorded to confirm it, and so far as species 

 naturalized or cultivated in India are concerned, we should be 

 led to just the opposite conclusion. 



All that we can draw from the facts given by Engelmann 

 and others is that there are certain Agaves in Yucatan to which 

 local native names have been attached viz., (i) Yaxci, (ii) Sacci, 

 (iii) Babci, (iv) Citamct, (v) Chelem. 



Henequen, as Engelmann points out, is a general term, and so 

 probably are " Pita " and " Istle " ; " Chucumci " seems to be the 

 same word as the " chichimecae " of Hernandez (1. c. p. 271) 

 which he states expressed the Indian mode of cooking portions 

 of the leaves for food (cf. Martius I c. p. 192). Probably this 

 also is a comprehensive term rather than the name of a 

 particular plant. 



Martius, who appears to have consulted several works that 

 are not mentioned by Engelmann, states that in the language of 

 the Maya tribes of Yucatan "Qwi" or " Quil" signifies the 

 plant from which fibre is got as well as the fibre, and enume- 

 rates as different sorts (i) Sac-quf (Sosquil), (ii) Yas-qui, (iii) 

 Chulul-qm, (iv) Chelem. 



Of these the Yas-qui or Yash-qni is from the description 

 manifestly Engelmann 's No. (i), and is A. sisalana. 



It would seem that the Sacqui ranks highest in the estima- 

 tion of the natives, and this evidently is the plant that is 

 cultivated on a large scale in the district of which Merida 

 (Sisal* is a port of Merida) is the centre, and figured at p. 24 

 of Kew Bulletin No. 62 Feby. 1892 (CCXXVIf, Sisal Hemp). 

 In the same Bulletin, (p. 31) it is clearly shewn that the Yucatan 

 field Agave is quite distinct from that which Dr. Perrine, who 



* Th busiest fibre port now is aaid to be Progreio. 



