CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS 213 



or even manila. The latter term, however, is properly restricted to the 

 fiber obtained from a species of plantain (Musa textilis) belonging to 

 the same genus as the banana. 



Sisal hemp, the subject of this paper, is obtained from the leaves of 

 some of the species and varieties of the genus Agave, one species of 

 which is well known in cultivation under the name of "century plant." 

 This genus belongs to the order Amaryllidacece, and is related to the 

 snow-drop, amaryllis, and narcissus; but, owing to the much greater 

 size of the plants, and some peculiar points of structure, it stands 

 prominent among its congeners. The agaves are indigenous in the New 

 World only, and the majority of the species are natives of Mexico, 

 only a few being known within the limits of the United States. 



The same general appearance is presented by all, so that any one 

 familiar with the century plant can form a very good idea of the appear- 

 ance of the other species of the genus. In all, the leaves are thick and 

 fleshy, as they contain the supply of material which is to nourish the 

 great flower-stem when the plant arrives at maturity. This stem, 

 which is a prolongation of the trunk of the plant, shoots up from the 

 center of the rosette of leaves, and often attains a height of from twenty 

 to thirty feet. The time required to arrive at maturity varies in the 

 different species, and in the same species under different conditions. 

 The "century plant" in its native home, Mexico, blossoms in from ten 

 to fifteen years, while with us it requires thirty, fifty, or in some cases, 

 it is said, even a hundred years to mature. During the production of 

 the great flower-stalk the store of nourishment in the massive leaves is 

 exhausted, and, after the fruit is produced, the plant withers and 

 dies. 



The leaves of all the agaves contain what are known botanically 

 as the fibro-vascular bundles. In order to see these, it is only necessary 

 to cut off a leaf of the centilry plant ; as, in a thick transverse section 

 that has been allowed to dry slightly, the fibers will look like short 

 bristles projecting from the surrounding soft tissue; and in a longitu- 

 dinal section these bristly points are seen as threads running through 

 the leaf. Should the observer be the fortunate possessor of a compound 

 microscope, on examining these threads he will find them composed of 

 exceedingly fine, elongated cells, closely connected in a bundle, and 

 surrounded by the much larger circular cells that compose the soft 

 parts of the leaf. When the outer skin and the soft tissue of the leaf 



