[ 187 ] 



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



22 



18, 19 Cf . Silk Grass (3) and (4) and Nequametl (2) . Also spelled ' Tobago'. 

 De Laet's drawing of the plant he called Nequametl (which see) 

 was made in Tabago. 



The older writers seem to have connected this in some way with the 

 Agaveae, but it was doubtless the Tagoara fibre now ascribed to 

 Guadua Tagoara, Kunth (of the Bamboo family). 



Tale ' is properly a palm, but often applied to species of Pandanus 

 in S. India. 



Mr. Rose is referring doubtless to Agave vivipara, Baker, of which 

 the description answers A. vivipara of Wight, i.e. (J) of this 

 Bulletin. He observed it in Jalisco and Zacatecas on the sides 

 of hot ravines, where thread is got from it for household uses. 

 So far as we can judge from his description, the ' Tapemete ' is not 

 the plant called A. vivipara by Buchanan, and figured by Wight, 

 though it may be very near it. It is probably the Tepemexcalli of 

 Hernandez. 



A port bordering on the State of Vera Cruz (in the Mexican Republic) 

 from which fibre collected in Tula, Zacatecas and other upland 

 tracts is exported for brush-making. 



This has often been regarded as co- extensive with ' Igtle ' and 

 obtained in great part from ' Agave heteracantha, ' but there is 

 considerable doubt as to what ' Agave heteracantha ' may be, and it 

 is now certain that there are a number of species which contribute 

 to the supply of ' Brush fibre ' through the ports on the Gulf of 

 Mexico, of which Tampico as regards this branch of trade is the 

 principal. It is also clear that Ixtle or Istle is applied in different 

 parts of Central America to very different fibres: the Istle of 

 British Honduras being derived from a Bromeliad and not from 

 an Agave at all. Also sometimes called ' Tampico Hemp ' (unless 

 this is really something quite different). 



A liquor (spirit) made from the sap of an Agave, chiefly in the States 

 lying westwards from the capital (Jalisco, etc.). Mr. Rose says 

 that the leaf is very narrow, and that it may be the same as Huila 

 (which see), but in any case is not A. americana. If Huila be the 

 same then it yields fibre also. 



