30 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
able botanical name has yet been attached to any of them, 
though it remains to be shown how far the Vera Cruz 
fiber ascribed to Agave Vera Cruz, A. mexicana, etc., is 
of the zapupe class. As is natural, samples of Bromelia 
and perhaps other fibers have been called zapupe; but 
the scanty literature of the group, based mainly on the 
statements of Lespinasse, Dewey, Endlich and Nunn, is 
fortunately free from serious confusion except that re- 
sulting from the fact that few references to zapupe per- 
tain to a single species of plant—though the ‘‘azul’’ is 
most commonly meant. 
The popular names, aside from the general designation 
‘‘Huasteca henequen’’ or ‘‘Tamaulipas henequen,’’ ap- 
plied to the zapupe forms are (1) ‘‘azul’’ or blue, (2) 
“cimarron” or mountain, (3) ‘‘Estopier,’’ the name of 
one of the planters, (4) ‘‘Huasteca,’’ a geographic name, 
(5) ‘‘San Bernardo,’’ (6) ‘‘Sierra Chontla,’’? a geo- 
graphic name, (7) ‘‘silvestre’’ or forest, (8) ‘‘Tanto- 
yuca,’’ a geographic or tribal name, (9) ‘‘Tepezintla,’’ a 
geographic name, (10) ‘‘verde’’ or green, and (11) ‘‘ Vin- 
cent,’’ after one of the planters; and to these is to be 
added the name ‘‘ixtle’’ or ‘‘ixtle manso’’ used locally at 
the Mirador hacienda and about Jalapa. 
As would be expected, several of these names are syn- 
onymous with others, but five clearly distinguishable 
forms occur: (1) the blue zapupe, ‘‘zapupe azul,’’ ‘‘za- 
pupe de Estopier,’’ ‘‘zapupe de San Bernardo’’ or, par 
excellence, simply ‘‘zapupe’’; (2) the Tepezintla zapupe, 
‘‘zapupe de Tepezintla’’ or ‘‘zapupe de Vincent’’; (3) 
the Mirador ixtle or ‘‘ixtle manso’’ of the Jalapa region, 
(not to be confused with the similarly named Yucatan 
plant, or the miscellaneous Tampico fiber); (4) the wild 
zapupe, ‘‘zapupe cimarroén,” ‘‘zapupe silvestre’’ or 
‘‘zapupe de Sierra Chontla’’; and (5) the Tantoyuca or 
green zapupe, ‘‘zapupe de Tantoyuca,’’ ‘‘zapupe de 
Huasteca’”’ or ‘‘zapupe verde.’’ 
These appear to be botanical species rather than cul- 
tural varieties or races; and in spine characters fall into 
