1)2 
[ Rep. No. 654. ] 
Extract of a letter to the Secretary of State, dated 
Campeachy, November 22, 1834. 
“'As the natives never receive any article in return but silver, and as 
they never spend any money they receive, (their clothes being made by 
their women, and their intoxication being effected by the fermented 
from their own maize,) it is calculated that since the first notice of the 
exportation of these fibres, their predecessors must have buried, of their 
value alone, a total amount of 2,825,000 dollars, which have never been 
of any service to their ancestors nor themselves, and may never be of 
any utility to their posterity or the world. From the abundant data al¬ 
ready communicated by the subscriber, it may be calculated that folia- 
ceous fibres of the Henequen and Istle alone may be produced in the bar¬ 
ren sands and in the idle woods of the South, much more profitably than 
the cortical fibres of the hemp and flax can be cultivated in the fertile 
fields of the West—than even the capsular fibres of cotton, in the rich 
alluvions of the Southwest. If South Carolina will even cultivate her 
indigenous Yueca filamentosa, he will promise her, with the rotary 
scrapers of Perrine, to separate foliaceous fibres from its fresh green 
leaves; a gift as favorable for her agricultural prosperity as were the ro¬ 
tary pickers of Whitney to separate capsular fibres from their ripe dry 
iseeds. 
“ N. B.—The native names of the forest Pine-apple plants are written 
both Istle and Ixtla : the names of the fibres are written either Pita, or 
PitaflojaP _ 
OTHER FIEROTJS-LEAVED SPECIES OF BROMELIA. 
Besides the common Pine-apple, (Bromelia ananas,) other species have 
■edible fruits; but, as far as my observation extends, the more valuable 
they are for edible fruit, the less valuable are they for their fibrous leaves. 
The Pinuelaof Yucatan, much prized for its clusters of very acid fruit, 
has no valuable fibres in its leaves. It nevertheless serves very well for 
hedges. The Penguin is very common in Jamaica, in most of the dry 
savannahs and on the rocky hills, where it is used for fencing pasture 
lands, on account of its prickly leaves. “ These, stripped of their pulp, 
soaked in water, and beaten with a wooden mallet, yield a strong thread, 
which is twisted into ropes and whips, and manufactured into a good 
cloth.” The juice of the fruit of both species makes a cooling drink for 
fevers, extremely diuretic and vermifuge. In Brazil, three species of 
Bromelia are prized for the valuable fibres contained in their leaves, 
whose provincial names are Grawatha, Caroa, and Crauata de Rede. 
Dr. Arrude gives the botanical names for the last two, B. variegata and 
B. sagenaria. The former is found in great abundance in the Sertoens de 
Paraiba, and of the northern provinces. The fibres of the leaves are of 
two kinds: from one, a very strong cordage is made; from the other, 
fishing-nets and a very coarse cloth are manufactured. The latter is con¬ 
fined to the maritime parts of Pernambuco and Paraiba. The leaves 
are from six to nine feet long. The foliaceous fibres are so very strong, 
and at the same time so yery fine, that cables are made of them much 
superior to those of Europe, in strength and elasticity, while these fibres 
are equally well adapted for sail-cloth, or for stockings. 
