■ - 6 - 
eventually a cespitose appearance. Polyanthes behaves just in 
this manner. 
The subterranean trunk of most (or all ?) Agaves contains, like 
that of Yuccas and many other plants of these families, a great 
deal of mucilage,* which, mixed with water, has detergent quali¬ 
ties to a considerable degree ; these “roots” and the whole plants 
thus used are known to the Mexicans by the name of Amole . 
Another use is made of the trunk, when, before flowering, it 
has developed a large quantity of saccharine matter, for nourish¬ 
ment ; and not only the ‘trunk of Mexican Agaves, but also that 
of the larger Arizona species, is thus eaten, after baking, under 
the name of Mezcal, and is said to be a very savory dish. The 
name Maguey is more commonly used for the plant itself. 
LEAVES.’ 
The leaves of the Agaves are sessile with a broad sheathing 
base, from linear to lanceolate or even ovate, the broader ones 
contracted above the base, and widened again upwards. They 
are thick and fleshy, sometimes soft, but usually of a firmer tex¬ 
ture, rarely quite tough and hard; in some species (only in the 
first group) they decay at the end of the season, but in most Aga¬ 
ves they are persistent for years. 
The margin of the leaf usually bears hard and dark-colored 
straight or hooked or variously flexed spiny teeth ; sometimes it 
is denticulate with minute, pale teeth ; rarely it dissolves, Yucca¬ 
like, into threads; in our A. farvijlora it combines the teeth on 
the lower half with the fibres on the upper half of the leaf; very 
seldom the edge of the leaves is entire ; in some species the whole 
margin of the leaf bearing the spines becomes dry, hard and 
horny, and is eventually, together with the spines, detached from 
the leaf (A. heteracantha ). It is not well-known whether the 
spines, so much relied on to characterize the different forms, are 
sufficiently constant; it seems, at least, that an extensively culti¬ 
vated form of A. rigida, of Yucatan, has lost its spines, and 
produces them only occasionally and very sparsely ; in the allied 
genus Fourcroya , leaves with and without marginal spiny teeth 
are of common occurrence. 
* The suggestion made (p. 21) tliat the rootstock may contain saponine, has not been 
verified by chemical analysis. 
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