[ 155 ] 

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



52 



18-19 



34 



22 



34 



33 



Squier docs not say which of the ' varieties ' of Heneqven or Pita 

 is so called in Cuba ; if it be a Furcraea then the reference is 

 perhaps to the mainland opposite where the Maya Indians had 

 their Heneqven plantations. Great weight attaches to the view 

 that 'Furcraea cubensis' was taken to the Brazils from the 

 Ant'lles, but more recent evidence points to the home of the 

 Furcraeas being rather in Panama and the neighbourhood. In 

 Venezuela the 'Maya' fruit is said to be a Bromelia (Bromelia 

 chrysantha). 



Probably one of the fibre yielding Furcraea*. Peter Martyr's text 

 suggests that the Caribs worshipped one or other of the 

 Agaveae, and a Euagave was deified in Mexico. Cf . Mast and 

 Pole also. 



Ainslie gives this also as Mellis Cour and says it is a smaller sort 

 of cordage or twine than ' Kyre,' but from the same plant. The 

 4 Kyre ' or ' Cour ' is probably the ' Queura ' (Keura) of Garcia 

 and other early writers, which seems to have been applied both 

 to Pandanus and Agave, 'Mellore' was a Portuguese name for 

 certain species of Pandanus including P. Leram, Jones; but 

 the 'Mellis' in Ainslie may refer to the flowers of an Agave. 

 The Maguey was called 'Honey Tree' and 'Melt,' a false 

 analogy being drawn between ' Metl ' and words meaning Honey in 

 the Romance languages of Europe ; tie flowers, of the Island species 

 particularly, distil honey. (Cf., however, Agua de Miel). 



A spirit made from certain of the Euagaves that grow in the State 

 of Mexico. It is called ' Mexical' or Mescal apparently to distin- 

 guish it from ' Tequila, 3 and ' Mescal de Maguey ' as against 

 Aguardiente and Sotol (which see, also Aguardiente and 'Tequila'). 



A general name for sundry plants of Mexico (in the wider sense) 

 mostly of the genus Agave usually employed by the Mexicans 

 themselves with a qualifying term to denote the sort intended. 

 When the Spaniards arrived from the Islands they applied to the 

 chief kinds, nd particularly the Pulque-yielding species, the name 

 of Maguey, which they had found given to plants of the same class 

 in tht Islands (e.g., San Domingo), and the early writers appro- 

 priated the names Metl and Maguey to a more or less apocryphal 

 'tree' which flourishes to the present day in various kinds of 

 literature. Acosta's history has given rise to the statement that 

 Maguey in Mexican means ' tree of wonders.' He did not say so, 

 nor is ' Maguey ' Mexican perhaps originally, but his 'Arbor de 

 las Maravillas ' is a more or less imaginary plant gifted with 

 the qualities of several different species. 



See Coztic Metl. 



