AGAVE AMERICANA-^— PULQUE. 335 



a mulberry, a strawberry, a rasp, and a gooseberry, 

 which are peculiar to it. Oranges and citrons, 

 which are now cultivated there, appear to have been 

 introduced, although a small wild orange occurs in 

 Cuba and on the coast of Terra Firma. The olive- 

 tree answers perfectly in New-Spain, but exists 

 only in very small numbers. 



Most civilized nations procure their drinks from 

 the plants which constitute their principal nourish- 

 ment, and of wilich the roots or seeds contain sac- 

 charine and amylaceous matter. There are few 

 tribes, indeed, which cultivate these solely for the 

 purpose of preparing beverages from them ; but in 

 the New Continent we find a people who not only 

 extract liquors from the maize, the manioc, and 

 bananas, but who raise a shrub of the family of the 

 ananas for the express purpose of converting its juice 

 into a spirituous liquor. This plant, the maguey 

 (Agave Americana), is extensively reared as far as 

 the Aztec language extends. The finest plantations 

 of it seen by our traveller were in the valley of 

 Tolucca and on the plains of Cholula. It yields the 

 saccharine juice at the period of inflorescence only, 

 the approach of which is anxiously observed. Near 

 the latter place, and between Tolucca and Cacanu- 

 macan, a maguey eight years old gives signs of de- 

 veloping its flowers. The bundle of central leaves 

 is now cut, the wound is gradually enlarged and 

 covered with the foliage, which is drawn close and 

 tied at the top. In this wound the vessels seem to 

 deposite the juice that would naturally have gone to 

 expand the blossoms. It continues to run two or 

 three months, and the Indians draw from it three or 

 four times a-day. A very vigorous plant occasion- 

 ally yields the quantity of 454 cubic inches a-day for 

 four or five months. This is so much the more as- 

 tonishing, that the plantations are usually in the 

 most arid and steril ground. In a good soil the 

 agave is ready for being cut at the age of five years; 



