agde] 



Cf)e Ereatfurg af 230taug. 



30 



very useful succedaneum for soap. For 

 this purpose the juice is expressed, and 

 then the watery part is evaporated, either 

 by artificial heat or exposure to the sun, 

 until it is reduced to a thick consistence, 

 when it may be made up into balls 

 with the help of lye ashes. This soap 

 lathers with salt water as well as fresh. 

 A gallon of the juice yields about a pound 

 of the soft extract. The roots of A. sapo- 

 naria, a powerful detergent, are employed 

 in Mexico for a similar purpose. 



The most important product, however, of 

 the Agave, and especially of .4. americana, 

 is the sap, which continues to flow for 

 some time upon cutting out the inner 

 leaves just before the flower scape is ready 

 to burst forth. The plant is called Metl by 

 the Mexicans, and Maguay de Cociuza in 

 Caraccas. Pittes, Acametl, Sequametl, and 

 Maguey-metl, are varieties of this species, 

 which is stated to be common everywhere 

 in Equinoctial America, from the plains 

 even to elevations of 9,000 to 10,000 feet. A. 

 mexicana, a closely allied species, is some- 

 times called Maguei-metl, and also Man- 

 guai. According to Humboldt, the plant 

 is extensively cultivated in the interior 

 cable-land of Mexico, and, indeed, extends 

 as far as the Aztec language. A.vivipara 

 isTheo-metl or Manguei divinum : and in 

 Cumana and Caraccas, A. cubens is is called 

 Maguay de Cocay. 



The sai» above referred to is of a sourish 

 taste, and easily ferments, on account of 

 the mucilage and sugar it contains, and in 

 in fermented state is called pulque by the 

 Spaniards. This vinous beverage, which 

 resembles cider, has an odour of putrid 

 meat, extremely di.-:e-nveaUe ; but Euro- 

 peans who have been able to overcome 

 Che aversion which the fetid odour in- 

 spires, prefer the pulque to every other 

 liquor. A very intoxicating brandy, called 

 Mexical or Aguardiente de Maguey, is 

 funned from the pulque. Royle states that 

 the Government drew from the agave 

 juice a net revenue of l<iG,49~l. in three 

 cities. The fresh Leaves of A. americana, 

 nt into slices, are occasionally used as 

 fodder for cattle ; and the centre of the 

 '.lowering stein, split lengthways, is said to 

 form no bad substitute for a European 

 razor-strop, on account of the minute par- 

 ticles of silica in its composition. The 

 leaves are also said to be used for scouring 

 pewter. [T. MJ 



AGDESTIS. A Mexican twining plant 

 originally described by De Candolle, from a 

 drawing of Mocino and Sesse's collection, 

 and which has till lately been very little 

 understood. Specimens recently examined 

 however, shown that it forms a 

 very distinct and somewhat anomalous 

 genus of Phytolaccacece. 



AGERATUM. A genus of composites, 

 belonging to the Eupatorium tribe of the 

 order, of which the A. mexicanum, a well- 

 known occupant of the flower-border, with 

 densely clustered lavender-blue capitules, 

 may be taken as the type. Botanically, 



it may be distinguished by its cup-shaped 

 involucre of numerous imbricated linear 

 leaflets, its naked receptacle, and its elon- 

 gated angular fruit, crowned by a pappus 

 of several awned scales, which are dilated 

 at the base. The genus includes some 

 other annual species in addition to the 

 A. mexicanum, but none of them exceed, 

 and few equal it in value for gardening 

 purposes. The A. conysoides very closely 

 resembles it, and has recently appeared in 

 gardens under the name of Phalacrwa 

 ccelestina. The A. angustifolium and A. 

 latifolium have white flowers, but are pro- 

 bably not in cultivation. There is a so- 

 called white variety of A. mexicanum, but 

 its flowers are really of a bluish cast. A 

 few perennial spe,eies are comprised in the 

 genus; they possess, however, ^mt little 

 general interest. The Ccelestina agera- 

 toides, a half-hardy perennial, with blue 

 ageratum-like flower heads, much em- 

 ployed in bedding, must not be con- 

 founded with the true Ageratums. [W. T.] 



AGGLOMERATE. Heaped up; as the 

 stamens in Anona and Magnolia, or the 

 male flowers in a pine tree. 



AGGREGATE. Several things collected 

 together into one body; as the achenes 

 in the fruit of a strawberry ; the flowers of 

 Cuscuta. 



AGILA WOOD. The fragrant wood of 

 Aquilaria ovata, and A. Agallochum. 



AGLANDEAU. (Fr.) A kind of Olive. 



AGLAOMORPHA. A genus of poly- 

 podiaceous ferns, of the group Polypodiea', 

 distinguished by having the veins cf the 

 fronds reticulated, with free included vein- 

 lets in the areoles, combined with the fol- 

 lowing peculiarities : — the free veinlets 

 are divaricated ; the fronds are naked, that 

 is, not clothed with scales ; they are arti- 

 culated with the rhizome, and dimorphous, 

 that is, certain sterile dwarfed oak-leaf-like 

 fronds are produced as well as the larger 

 fertiip ones ; and, finally, the fertile ones 

 have the fertile segments, which are the 

 upper ones, much narrower than the lower 

 sterile ones. There is but one species, A. 

 Mcimitana, a native of the Philippine 

 Islands. [T.M.] 



AGNOSTUS. A synonym of Stenocar- 

 pus. 



AGNUS CASTES. Yitex Agnus-castus. 



AGRAPH1S ' The poets feign that the 

 boy Hyacinth us, who was unfortunately 

 killed by Apollo, was changed by that deity 

 into a Hyacinth, which, therefore, was 

 marked with the letters AI, alas ! to ex- 

 press Apollo's grief. It is also feigned, 

 that the same flower arose from the blood 

 of Ajax when he slew himself : those let- 

 ters being half the hero's name.'— Note in 

 Martin's Virgil. The flower referred to is 

 now supposed to be the Martason lily, 

 the spots on the petals of which some- 

 times run together so as to assume the 

 required form ; but the name Hyacinthus 



