The point of the leaf forms a so ft herbaceous bristle, or usually 
a hard and' pungent spine, of different shapes, round, or com¬ 
pressed sideways, or flattened on the upper surface, or concave, 
prchannelled ; and these characters seem to be constant and of 
, specific value. 
The tissue of the leaf of most Agaves contains innumerable 
extremely tough fibres, which, in some of the species with suf¬ 
ficient long leaves, afford, when freed from the .surrounding 
parenchyma, valuable textile material, usually called Pita y \ n 
general use in their native countries, and even exported. A. 
Americana furnishes a coarser Pita, A. rigida , and its cultivated 
varieties are the source of the finer Sisal hemp ; other species, e.g. 
A. heteracantha , are locally used for the same purposes. 
INFLORESCENCE. 
The flowering stem or scape shoots up from the centre of a 
rosette of leaves, continuing the main axis ; it bears numerous 
bractlike leaves (Pdochblaetter), generally triangular from a 
broad base, often attenuated into a slender tip, smaller as they 
reach up into the inflorescence. All the vigor of the plant, all 
the nourishment accumulated in the, massive leaves and in the ^ 
succulent trunk, are used and exhausted in the production of the 
inflorescence. It is well-known that A. Americana is exten¬ 
sively cultivated in Mexico, principally for the immense quantity ; 
of saccharine juice prepared in its leaves for this purpose. When 
the flowering scape shows the first signs of development, the 
terminal bud and the innermost leaves are removed, when in 
the basin thus formed the liquid collects and is dipped out; on 
an average about a gallon a day, for two or three months in suc¬ 
cession, from a single plant 150 to 300 gallons in all. Prom this 
juice the fermented (pulque) and distilled (mezcal) liquors are 
prepared which are so generally used all over Mexico. The juice 
which is extracted before the plant prepares to bloom is acrid and 
not copious. 
The flowering stems are in the different species from 3 to 20, 
and, it is said, even 30 feet high, and from a few lines to 3-5 
inches in diameter, together with those of the allied Fourcroyas, 
the tallest flowering stems known. 
The flowers are articulated on (usually extremely) short, per- 
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