DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 97 



several samples of a wild pineapple (Bromelia sylvestris "Willd.) from the West Indies 

 and Central America at Ivew, but there is no record of their commercial value." A 

 sample sent to Kew from Trinidad in 1887, supposed to he from this species, was 

 reported upon as follows: " Xot in commercial use, hut destined, we think, to a suc- 

 cessful future; tine, soft, supple fiber, strong and good color, ample length, (worth) 

 say £30 per ton and upwards.'* 



A beautiful sample of liher secured by me from the Mexican exhibit at the Paris 

 Exposition of 1889, and labeled B. sylvestris, was very long, creamy white, fine, soft, 

 and silky. A memorandum secured with the sample reads as follows: " Grows wild 

 in a zone extending from Tustepec in the State of Oaxaca to Acayucan in Vera Cruz. 

 Employed in making hunting hags or game pouches and fine woven textures. For- 

 merly it was used for the fine sewing of shoes." This sample is finer, softer, and of 

 a better color than any other samples labeled B. sylvestris in the Department collec- 

 tion. Regarding the correctness of the identification, however, nothing authorita- 

 tive can be stated. 



The name "silk grass," and "silk grass of Honduras*' has been given to this species 

 (in the books), though "silk grass "has also been given to other species, and even to the 

 fiber of Agaves. Dr. Morris writes me that a wild form of the common pineapple, 

 Ananas sativa, growing at Kew, yields a fiber called "silk-grass fiber" by the Eng- 

 lish. This plant is the "Growia" of British Guiana (see also Krowa in this catalogue). 

 He further states that the name silk grass is applied indiscriminately to the fiber of 

 the common pineapple, of a Bromelia, a Karatas, and also of Furcrcea cubensis. The 

 name silk grass therefore serves no purpose of identification in connection with the 

 fiber of B. sylvestris. 



Economic literature. — In the monthly report of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture for 1869, pages 232-233, there is a communication from Hon. J. McLeod 

 Murphy, which, when sent to the Department, was "accompanied with three skeins 

 of the istle fiber, Bromelia sylvestris," etc., and also with a package of the hackled 

 fiber and small samples of fishing-tackle. In this communication the leaf is described 

 as "being shaped like a sword, its edges armed with prickles similar, in fact, to the 

 weapon formed from itzli. or obsidian, used by the Aztecs; hence the term." It was 

 said to grow almost exclusively on the southern shore of the Mexican Gulf, between 

 Alvarado and Tabasco, extending as far inland as the northern slopes of the dividing 

 ridge which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific. The leaves were 5 to 6 feet in 

 length. In the monthly report of the Department for August and September, 1870, 

 page 351, there is another communication from the same source which was sent to the 

 Department with a package of dried leaves "sun dried by Squier," and a hank of 

 the fiber. These specimens are still in the collection of the Department ; the leaves 

 are without spines, though these may have been cut off. 



In Squier's Tropical Fibers (Xew York, 1861) there is an account of the "Bromelia 

 sylvestris, or wild pineapple, the istle of Mexico, but known as pita and pinuella in 

 Central America and Panama, and in the West Indies as Bromelia ping uin or penguin, 

 (which) can hardly be said to rank second to the lienequens in economic importance." 

 This is reproduced in the report of the Flax and Hemp Commission of 1863. Squier 

 also quotes Major Barnard, U. S. A., in a report on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, who, 

 speaking of the " istle,'' says: "Among the spontaneous products of the Isthmus is 

 the Bromelia pita or ixtle, which differs in some regard from the Agave americana of 

 Europe, "etc. Further he quotes from a paper read by Chief Justice Temple, of Belize, 

 or British Honduras, in the year 1857, which appeared in the journal of the Royal 

 Society of Arts, Vol. V. p. 125. An extract is here reproduced : 



"Amoug other objects of interest he exhibited a quantity of the fiber of the plant 

 under notice as well as of the Agave sisalana." Of the former, or Bromelia sylvestris, 

 he said : " The plant called Bromelia pita, istle by the Mexicans, and silk grass by the 

 Creoles of British Honduras, grows spontaneously in the greatest abundance. The 

 leaves are of a soft, dark green, from 5 to 15 feet long and from li to 4 inches wide. 

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