384 On the Commerce af Mexico. 
perforations open is perfectly under control, and may be 
adjusted to any requred degree. . 
In the other form, a small cylinder of india-rubber, 
closed at its lower end, is drawn over a corresponding 
cylinder of wood with a hole through its centre, and then 
tightly bound at its upper edge. The india-rubber has a 
number of slits made in its substance, which (when any 
orifice through which the liquor may flow is opened) re- 
ceives the pressure of the air, and yielding to this, open, 
so as to let the air enter the vessel in exactly the same 
extent as liquor is withdrawn. When the flow of liquor is 
stopped, the edges of the slits become drawn together, so 
as to prevent any escape of liquor or gas in a wrong direc- 
tion. Should there be any pressure from within upon the 
surface of the india-rubber, this will only tend to the more 
perfect closing of the slits, and thus, while affording suffi- 
cient ingress, altogether restrain egress. 
ON THE COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 
MIDST the vegetable productions which most ex- 
cited the attention of the Europeans who first set 
foot upon the Mexican continent was the plant Slerandria 
Monogynia, according to Linnzus, denominated by the 
Aztecs “ Metl,” and by the Spaniards “ Maguey,” probably 
from the latter having been the generic name amongst the 
natives of Hispaniola or Santo Domingo for the common 
aloe, which plant, although somewhat like it, is, however, 
by no means to be confounded with the maguey, which 
belongs to the family of the agave, a name derived from 
the Greek word “agavus” (ayavo&n), admirable. 
The maguey is “the tree of wonders” (“el arbol de las 
marabulas”), says the monk, José Acosta, who visited 
Mexico in the year 1586, in his “ Natural History of the 
Indies,’ published at Madrid in 1608; and up to the pre- 
sent day it may be considered, in its numerous varieties, as 
one of the most important productions of the Mexican soil. 
The beverage produced from it denominated pulgue, to 
which I cursorily alluded in a former report, was, as it 
would appear, well known to the ancient inhabitants of the 
Mexican continent from the fabulous traditions connected 
