[ Eep. No. 564. ] 8T 
5. There are wild species of fibrous-leaved Agaves indigenous to Florida 
and the Mexican species sent there by H. Perrine in 1833 have become do¬ 
mesticated and propagate themselves. One dry coral rock, called Bamboo^ 
takes its misnomer from the tall flower-stalks of the Florida Agaves which 
cover it. 6. There are various other species, and probably various valuable 
varieties of ditferent species and genera of fibrous-leaved plants existing 
on dilferent portions of the American continent and islands, which merit 
introduction to an acclimating nursery in tropical Florida, in order to de¬ 
termine on a small scale the peculiar and relative value of their foliaceous 
fibres. 7. The Agave virginica is indigenous to our worst soils, in the 
Southern States, as far as the Potomac. Several species, under the vague; 
' name of Agave americana have become wild on the worst soils of southern 
Europe, as high as Switzerland. In Spain, under the name of Pita, they 
, speak of one species whose succulent leaves are eaten by cattle, and under 
the name of Cabuya; of one other species, whose fibrous leaves are used 
for cordage. The former is probably a Maguey de Pulque of Mexico; the 
latter a Henequen de Sosquil of Yucatan. Hence, if the Agave virginica 
itself does not contain valuable fibres in its leaves, there is every human 
probability that the fibrous-leaved species of Yucatan may be gradually 
acclimated as far north as Maryland ; and the juicy-stemmed species of 
the Mexican highlands may gradually extend into even the Allegany 
mountains. 
The peninsula of Yucatan embraces the worst soils of any province of 
Mexico. It is principally composed of arid, cavernous limestone, and has 
not a river, brook, or spring within several hundred miles of the coast, be- 
gining at Campeachy and running thence north to Sisal, east to Cape Gato- 
che, and south down to Bacalar. Nature has, however, compensated the 
aridity of both soil and air by bestowing upon the indolent inhabitants 
very valuable plants, principally composed of large succulent leaves, or 
long fleshy and fibrous leaves, which propagate themselves both on the 
stony surfaces of the interior and the sandy shores of the coast. Those 
species and varieties whose living leaves yield superior substitutes for 
hemp, are the most remarkable, and the,plants themselves are embraced 
by the natives under the generic name of Henequen. As the Spanish/ 
has the sound of our A, the white or Spanish Mexicans frequently write 
the common name thus, Jenequen for Henequen. The coarse foliaceous 
fibres obtained from the green leaves of all the species are called by the 
generic name of Sosquil. The equivalent to this Mexican term for coarse 
, foliaceous fibres is generally Grass-hemp m the.mouth of an American. 
There are two varieties of cultivated Henequen^ called Yash-qui and Sac- 
qui by the natives ; or the Greenish Henequen and the Whitish Henequen 
in the translation of the Spaniards. Both these are embraced by me un¬ 
der the denomination of Agave Sisalana. Taking the Yashqui far the type^ 
its generic characters are as follows: Corol bell-form ; segments conver¬ 
ging and longer than the tube. Filaments very long, awl-shaped, and in¬ 
serted into the base of the segments at or near the top of the tube. Style 
not half as long as the stamens, and is even very little elevated above the 
segments of the corol when its three-lobed stigma receives the pollen from 
the bursting anthers. The corol, stamens, and style continue all perma¬ 
nent on the germ; and the germ itself becomes a cylindrical capsule, 
which, opening at the top in three divisions, even splits the dried tube of 
the corol. Its specific character is sufficiently denoted by the smoothness. 
