4,2 PITA OR AGAVE FIBRE. 
south of Spain. So much is the latter the case, that some 
authors take this American plant to be the aloe wood mentioned 
in Scripture. But there is not the slightest foundation for 
this opinion, nor indeed for the true aloe plants of which the 
agaves so frequently assume the name.’ But, as they also yield 
some fibre, it is better to retain for them their appropriate 
name of Aloe. 
The Agave plants, to which the name of American aloes 
is so frequently applied, resemble the true aloes in their sword- 
shaped leaves with parallel veins, which, however, grow to a 
gigantic size—that is, from eight to ten feet in length—in a 
cluster from the root, with their margins usually armed with short 
thorns, and their points with a hard and sharp thorn. This makes 
these plants so useful in the construction of hedges; a use to 
which they are applied in the south of Spain and of Italy, as 
also in Sicily. These plants come to perfection in about three 
years, though they do not flower for eight, and, in some situa- 
tions, perhaps not for twenty years, when they throw up a tall 
candelabra-like flower stalk. This has, no doubt, given origin 
to the fable of their flowering only once in a hundred years, 
It is the leaves of these plants which abound in fibres of great 
length, and of considerable strength. Being also tough and 
durable, they are separated for the purpose of making string 
and rope, not only in their native countries, but also in those 
into which they have been introduced. 
The author, in his ‘Illustrations of Himalayan Botany’ (p.375), 
observed, respecting these plants: “The species of agave are 
not only ornamental as plants, and useful as hedges, but are 
important for their products. The roots, as well as leaves, 
contain ligneous fibre (pita thread), useful for various pur- 
poses: these are separated by bruising and steeping in water, 
and afterwards beating; practices which the natives of India 
have adopted, either from instruction or original observation. 
The Mexicans also made their paper of the fibres of agave leaves 
laid in layers. The expressed juice of the leaves evaporated, 
is stated by Long, in his ‘ History of Jamaica,’ to be also useful 
as a substitute for soap. But the most important product of 
‘ The Aloes wood of Scripture is the Ahila wood of the East, so famed for its 
fragrance, yielded by Aguilaria Agallochum, &c. (v. Ahalim by the author in 
Kitto’s ‘Cycl. of Biblical Literature,’ i, p. 95.) 
