APPEND.] 



ANANAS MANSO. 



349 



must be repeated until the fibres become clean. I have 

 paid for each arroba of it 1920 reis, or Ad. per lb. But 

 the usual price at which it is sold is from 120 to ICO 

 reis, or 8c?. to 10 [d. per lb. 



Ananas Manso, Bromelia Ananas. 



Class, Hexandria: — Order, Monogynia: — Divi- 

 sion, Flowers complete. 



The use which is made of the ananas at our tables is 

 so common that in this respect it is unnecessary that 

 any thing should be said ; therefore I shall only mention 

 the purposes to which the fibrous property of its leaves 

 may be applied. This I discovered in 1801, when I was 

 directed by a Royal Order to make enquiry into the 

 fibrous qualities of indigenous plants. I found, on com- 

 paring the fibre of this with tha£ of all others, that it is 

 the strongest and the finest, and that it is adapted to the 

 manufacture of cloth even of superior quality. I took 

 the leaves of two of these plants which weighed 1 4 lbs. 

 I beat them with mallets, washing those portions which 

 had been beat ; they yielded rather more than one quarter 

 of a pound of thread. The operation lasted nine hours, 

 being performed by one man. It is bleached with great 

 ease. The ananas may be produced in almost all kinds 

 of land ; it will grow in a sandy soil, and still more does 

 it flourish in that which is argillaceous ; the sun does not 

 destroy it, nor is it injured by rain ; no insect attacks 

 it. Each shoot multiplies so largely, that in a short 

 time the space which has been at first left between each 

 plant, is soon filled up. After a bed of ananas has 

 once been "planted, very little care is required to keep it 

 in order. I have known some which have existed six- 

 teen years without requiring to be replanted. An ex- 



