140 
ee of the leaves of the plant have been received at Kew, and it 
has now been possible to determine the fe ai as shown in the following 
tar addressed to the Colonial Office 
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW, to the COLONIAL OFFICE, 
SIR, Royal Gardens, Kew, July 18, reel 
WITH reference to your letior of the 14th February 1887, a 
subsequent correspondence on the subject of the “ Pita” fibre plant of 
the Bahamas, I am desired by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer to ee you 
he has lately received et Sir Ambrose Shea specimens of ve of 
this plant, which have now enabled us to identify it. 
2. When a gar ce ot various fibre plants growing at the Bahamas 
were forwa to w two years ago, a description of which was 
forwarded with my letter of the 16th May 1887, the present plant 
was not among them. The various species of Agave are extremely 
difficult to distinguish, and it is gni possible that the pan described 
as No. 1 Agave lurida was sent to this country under mpress sion 
that it was identical with what is known locally as the “ Pita pla ant.” 
3. The “Pita” of the Bahamas, which it is hoped will give rise to 
$ anocossful local industry, from the specimens of leaves that have now 
ached Kew, is a most interesting and valuable plant. There can be 
little doubt it is Agave sisalana of Perrine, now generally recognised 
as a variety of Agave rigida of Miller 
4. A good description of the plant, by Engelmann, is quoted in the 
Kew Bulletin for March 1887, 
. This plant has doubtless reached the Bahamas, where we under- 
stand it is anii naturalized, from Florida and Key West. It is the 
produce of the plants originally introduced to Florida by Perrine about 
40 years ago. _ The pat of teeth on the leaves, their extreme len 
plant are qualities whick render it one of the ae if not the best, fibre 
En ete known species of Agaves and Furcreas. 
. The steps already taken by the Governor Port the Bahamas to 
sa the utilisation of this plant and Seta hivah a local fibre 
industry are fully justified by the intrinsic merits of this Agave, and by 
the reports which have been obtained in this country on the quality 
and value of the fibre 
* xe * 
I have, &e. 
Edward Wingfield, — C.B., (Signed) D. MORRIS. 
Colonial Office 
XLV.—FIBRE INDUSTRY AT THE BAHAMAS—. 
(continued). 
(Agave rigida, var. sisalana.) 
[K. B., 1890, pp. 158-161.] 
The development of an important fibre industry at the Bahamas has 
already been the er ras £ antan in the Kew Bulletin (see March 1889, 
p. 57, and Dabar 1889, p. 254). 
As indicating the ese ract h of the industry from an American point 
of view the following Report, prepared by the United States Consul at 
sles — 
