[ 107 ] 

 Agaveae (also certain other fibre plants) or to their products. 



54 



54 



21 



17 



18, 19 



The Botanical Observations on Select Indian Plants were intennpted 

 by the death of Sir William Jones, and the List gives nothing 

 further j but the plant was very likely our Agave (D), which has 

 been known in Bengal for a considerable period, though the author's 

 query shews that he was well aware that it could hardly have been 

 there when Sanscrit was a living hnguage. Roxburgh, who was 

 better acquainted probably with Agave (E), which is naturalized in 

 Coromandel, fitted the name Cantala to that. See the next, Kantala 

 and Kuntala, also Kantal, <vc. 



When Buchanan brought Agave (J) to notice it appears to have been 

 regarded in Bengal as a var. of Roxburgh's A. Cantala, but the 

 name assigned by Buchanan to his plant gradually superseded 

 Roxburgh's as regards this supposed variety. Meanwhile the 

 Sanscrit epithet was transferred to the 'variety* (which Roxburgh 

 probably had never seen) from the A. Cantala of Roxburgh, and 

 finally, when his Cantala was lost from the Calcutta Garden, Agave 

 (E) was confounded with the altogether different Agave of Wight 

 (J), so that ' Agave vivipara* of Wight (which is doubtless that of 

 Buchanan and Ainslie) has been very commonly supposed to be the 

 Indian Cantala. Whether Cantala had ultimately anything to do 

 with Agave is a different matter, as to which see Kantal and 

 Kathal. 



From the botanical identification this should be = Musa textilis, but 

 Agaves also are reported to have been cultivated on the Chinese 

 Coast, as a supplement, most probably, to the true Manila fibre. 



' Or Spanish Barb another species of vegetable hair.' Tillandsias 

 yielding ' Grin vegetal* are no doubt intended. See Agave palo, 

 and Sarba de palo. A common Spanish American name is 'Barba 

 de Velio ' where ' Barba ' = ' rootlets ' ' fibre.' Cf . the following . 



' Caraguata,' which is variously rendered as Caroata, Cravata, 

 Grawatha, also, perhaps, Curratow, Coratoe or Keratto, Karata 

 and Karatas, is a comprehensive term applied from the coasts and 

 islands of the Caribbean Sea to the Argentine to different species 

 of JBromeliacecB, belonging chiefly to the genera Bromelia, 

 Karatas, Tillandsia, with perhaps Billbergia and Aechmea also. 

 In Columbia, and adjoining States it seems to be used for one or 

 more Furcraeas. The botanical genus Caraguata is not known, at 

 present, to include any economic species. The Paraguay 

 Caraguata was exhibited at Paris in 1889, and was ascertained at 

 Kew to be derived from a then undescribed romelia. There are 

 at least two kinds of southern Caraguata, viz. : Caraguata de 

 agua, and Caragata ibera, one of which remains to be identified. 

 See Ibera, also Istle, Mexican fibre, Silk grass, Curratow and 

 Keratto. 



It is not clear whether Martius regarded Caraguata as the Carib 

 name of F. cubensis (or F. cubensis and F. tuberosa) as distin- 

 guished from F. gigantea ('pita'), buc the home of the 

 Furcraea* was more likely on the mainland, near the Isthmus, 

 though they may have spread to Cuba first and thence back to the 

 mainland from the eastern Antilles. 



