Volume 12 Number 2 



The Plant World 



A Magazine of General Botany 

 FEBRUARY, 1909 



SOME MEXICAN FIBER PLANTS. 

 By J. E. Kirkwood. 



The central Mexican plateau abounds in individuals of 

 certain species of Agave, Yucca and allied forms, prominent 

 among which are Agave Lechuguilla, A. jalcata, A. asperrima. 

 Yucca australis, and Samuela carnerosana. 



There is some difficulty in designating these plants by their 

 common names as a great lack of unanimity obtains among 

 Mexicans upon this point. Several agaves are called "lechu- 

 guilla," particularly A. Lechuguilla and A. univittata. The 

 name "maguey" is applied to any of the large fleshy agaves 

 cultivated for drink or fiber, as well as the smaller A. asperrima, 

 found growing spontaneously in the desert. The former, of 

 which there are several varieties, are referred by Rose* to A. 

 cochlearis. In that part of the country to which attention is 

 here called Yucca australis and Samuela carnerosana are very 

 common. The former with branched stem and pendant inflor- 

 escence, closely resembling Yucca treculeana which Rose* pub- 

 lished in hi's "Notes on the Useful Plants of Mexico" and called 

 "isote," was known at Cedros as "palma china." The latter, 

 unbranched and with erect inflorescense, is also called isote by 

 the natives in some parts and in others "palma zamandoca," 

 also "palma pita." But palma pita is also used to designate 

 one of the larger agaves, so the matter is in hopeless confusion, 

 and it is impossible to make oneself clear in the use of these 

 names, unless it is definitely understood what plants are meant. 

 Hereafter in this discussion the plants referred to as lechuguilla, 

 palma china, and palma zamandoca, or simply palma, will be 

 respectively Agave Lechuguilla, Yucca australis, and Samuela 

 carnerosana. 



* Rose. J. N. Notes on useful plants of Mexico. Cont. U. S. Nati. Herb. 5 : 209- 

 259, 1899. 



