Vegetable Materials for Cordage, &c. 33 
portation.* Great quantities are sent to Cuba to make coffee- ; 
and since the year 1825, numerous cargoes have been imported into 
the United States, and worked up into hawsers, running rigging, and 
small ropes. Much of the late importation I am in ormed, has been 
of a quality far inferior to the early stock. In Yucatan, about Me- 
rida, the most beautiful sewing thread is made of the fibre, some of 
which Capt. Hayes brought home, and used in his family. The 
coarsely prepared fibre for ropes and hawsers, resembles the Manilla 
hemp, but is harsher to the touch: this may be owing to the great size 
of the'leaves, and to a careless preparation of them, for the fibre 
from Hayti is much finer. than that from Sisal, and the small ropes 
made from it are beautiful and glossy. 
The plant has a very extensive range in Asia, South America, 
Mexico, and the West Indies, and wherever found, is applied more 
or less to the same purposes as hemp or flax. In Yucatan the fibre 
is called « hennequin :” in other places “ pita,”+ the name by which 
the thread and twine made of it are also known. In Colombia the 
Prepared fibre is called “ coquise,” and the name pita, given to that 
of a tree, called marichi.t ‘The cordage from the Agave plant is 
said to be liable to mildew, and to lose its pliability after being wet, 
faults that do not attach to the Manilla rope. It is also thought to be 
inferior in strength to this last. Hawsers made of it are much less 
durable than those composed of Manilla hemp. 
Twas led to the preceding investigations by the following occur- 
Fence, to which I have already alluded. 
In the autumn of 1829, Mr. F., a merchant of Philadelphia, im- 
Ported a quantity of “ coir cordage,” and also a large parcel of the 
on pe ee yl bs 
** The leaves vary from five to eight feet in length, but some considerably ex- 
ceed these dimensions.”»—W ard’s Marios: Vol. I. p. 55.—Mr. Bullock measured 
re ten feet long, fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick.—Residence in Mex- 
Bs T1—In Hayti they seldom exceed five feet in length. Humboldt has given 
Pew interesting account of the various uses to which the plant is applied, in his 
'y on the Kingdom of New Spain. Mr. Ward, in the aceount of his 
exico, has also stated some of them, and given a fine plate of the plant. 
The fb ts name in Guatimala, according to > p. 241. oa 
aks re of this tree is said to be ten or twelve feet long, and finer and more 
on'ts5 an that of the Agave. It is used for sewing half boots and shoes.—Notes 
m ombia, by Lieut. Bache, U. 8. Army, p. 89, 1827.—It is to be regretted that 
Men of waar given of so valuable a tree or its produce, and that no speci- 
% the fibre has been brought home. < 
Vor. XXI.—Npo. i; 
