DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



45 



Agave decipiens. The False Sisal Hemp of Florida. 



Found wild along the coasts and keys of the Florida peninsula. Species described 

 by Dr. Baker from material obtained in the fiber investigations of the Department 

 of Agriculture in Florida. Fig. 2, PL II, is a large false sisal plant photographed at 

 the Government experimental factory on Biscayne Bay. 



Structural Fiber.— From the leaves; 2 to 3 feet, Biscayne Bay and keys; 3 to 

 4 feet, Lake Worth region. In color very white, fine, soft ; about half as strong as 

 sisal hemp, from which it is readily distinguished by its lighter color. An inferior 

 fiber. 



Economic considerations. — The importance of this plant in the list of vegetable 

 fibers is due to the fact that it has so long been confounded with the true sisal hemp 

 of Florida, both by the people of Florida and by Bahamians who have purchased, or 

 otherwise obtained, 

 plants for cultivation 

 in the Bahamas. The 

 two forms, the false 

 and the true sisal, dif- 

 fer so greatly in habit 

 and general appear- 

 ance that there should 

 be no mistaking them 

 when their peculiari- 

 ties are known. J. 

 decipiens throws out its 

 mass of leaves from the 

 top of a footstalk, 

 sometimes 6 feet high, 

 the leaves seeming to 

 radiate like a many- 

 pointed star, while the 

 color is always in 

 strong contrast to the 

 surrounding vegeta- 

 tion. The true sisal 

 plant, on the contrary, 

 sends up its mass of 

 leaves from the sur- 

 face of the ground, 

 though sometimes 

 with a very shert foot- 

 stalk, this difference 

 alone rendering iden- 

 tification easy, for before the lower leaves of sisalana have been cut, as in cultivation, 

 the plant never shows this habit. Other marked differences are : The shorter, nar- 

 rower leaf in decipiens nearly always (on the keys) rolled in at the sides.so that a cross 

 section appears like the letter U. In color it is a brighter, more livid green. Its 

 spines, which are very thickly set along the edges, are strongly curved, and so sharp 

 that it is impossible to go about among the plants without lacerating the flesh or 

 tearing the clothing. Even the young plants which have not acquired their footstalks 

 differ so greatly from the young plants of sisalana that no one should mistake them 

 after having had the differences once pointed out. The young sisalana grows very 

 erect, the leaves being flatter and of a dark green, and without spines. The decipiens 

 throws out its leaves with a more spreading habit, the lower series usually bent (recum- 

 bent) to the ground, the leaves themselves being short, stocky, and with the edges mor6 

 or less turned up. The color, even in the young plants, is a brighter green than sisalana, 



Fig. 9. — An old plant of Agave decipiens. 



