1885.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 517 



after the extraction of the fibers, and constituting about one-third in 

 weight of the leaves, may possibly also contain saponin. 



Every year this plant puts forth a huge and dense cluster of white 

 flowers, succeeded by fleshy pods which as they mature, assume some- 

 what the size and shape of bananas. The pulp, half an inch thick, 

 which covers the seeds, is delicious if exactly ripe. Unfortunately it 

 often happens that this pulp decays before, of is eaten up by insects 

 after, maturity. If picked when still a little green and laid in a dry 

 place, the pods will ripen sufficiently in a few days to be very pala- 

 table. 



They are also distilled ; from them much aguardiente, or rum, is made 

 in Northern Mexico. 



Yucca angustifolia, Pursh, and Y. rupicola, Scheele. 



These two species, common, the former west and the latter east of 

 the Pecos, are also "aniole" plants, containing in their roots more or less 

 of the detergent saponaceous substance described above. As textile 

 plants they are of but little importance. '' 



Dasylirion Texanum, Scheele. (Bear Grass; the Sotol of the Mexicans.) 



Characterized by a thick tuft or cluster of long, green, armed leaves, 

 from the midst of which rises periodically a stout stem 10 to 12 feet high, 

 bearing a long, close panicle. Abundant west of the Pecos, covering 

 almost exclusively many square miles of arid and stony slopes, the most 

 striking botanical feature of the country. Also found on nearly all the 

 foot-hills of Western Texas. 



The stems can be used in building huts where timber is scant, and 

 make fair fuel in places where no other can be had. 



The base of the leaves, and the young stems, are full of a nutritious sac- 

 charine and antiscorbutic pulp which supplies, specially when cooked, 

 useful and palatable food. Bears are fond of it, as testify the many plants 

 found pulled up and torn open in the spring. After the leaves have 

 been chopped off close, leaving nothing but their white expanded and 

 imbricated bases, the resulting a head" is ready for cooking ; it can be 

 boiled, broiled on coals, or baked. Baking, the usual mode of prepar- 

 ing it for food or the distillation of mescal, is done in a small heated pit 

 where it is kept for about twenty-four hours. 



The baked head, after pounding, fermentation and distillation, pro- 

 duces a limpid, colorless liquor of penetrating smell and peculiar taste 

 not unlike the smoky flavor of Scotch whisky. It is the Sotol mescal, 

 the ordinary alcoholic beverage of the frontier Mexican population, and 

 in no way inferior to the average whisky found in that country." 



The mescal, vino mescal or taquile, of the interior of Mexico, is ob- 

 tained in a similar manner by the baking and distillation of the head, 

 or cajeta, of the Mexican Maguey (Agave Americana). It is a liquor of 

 superior quality to Sotol mescal. It should not be confounded with 

 " pulque," the sweetish, mild beverage so popular in the cities of Mexico, 



