AGAVE, a genus of plants belonging: to the natural order arneryllidece (q.v.), and hav ing a tubular perianth with 6-partite limb, and a triangular, many-seeded inferior capsule. They are herbaceous plants, of remarkable and beautiful appearance. There are a number of species, all natives of the warmer parts of America. By unscientific persons they are often confounded with aloes (q.v.); and A. Amerieana is generally known by the name of AMERICAN ALOE. The agaves have either no proper stem, or a very short one, bearing at its summit a crowded head of large, fleshy leaves, which are spiny at the margin. From the midst of these shoots up the straight, upright scape, 24 to 36 ft. high, and at the base often 1 ft. in diameter, along which are small, appressed, lanceolate bractere, with a terminal panicle, often bearing as many as 4000 flowers. Iu S. America, these plants often flower in the 8th year, but in our hot-houses not until they have reached a very advanced age; whence arises the gardeners' fable of their flowering only once in 100 years. After flowering, the plant always dies down to the ground, but the root continuing to live, sends up new shoots. The best known species is A. Americana, which was first brought from S. America to Europe in 1561, and being easily propa gated by suckers, is'employed for fences in Italian Switzerland, and has become natural ized in Naples, Sicily, and the n. of Africa. By maceration of the leaves, which arc 5 to
7 ft. long. are obtained coarse fibres, which are used in America, under the name of maguey, for the manufacture of thread, twine, ropes, hammocks, etc. This fibre is also known as pits, flax. It is now produced to some extent in the s. of Europe. It is not very strong nor durable, and if exposed to moisture it soon decays. The ancient Mexi cans employed it for the preparation of a coarse kind of paper, and the Indians use it for oakum. The leaves, cut into slices, are used for feeding cattle.—Another species, A. NexicAtna, is particularly described by Humboldt upon account of its utility. When the innermost leaves have been torn out, a juice continues to flow for a year or a year and a half, which, by inspissation, yields sugar; and which, when diluted with water, and subjected to 4 or 5 days' fermentation, bedornes an agreeable but intoxicating drink, called plaque, to which the Mexican Indians not unfrequently sacriLce both fortune and life. It is made likewise from A. Americana, and from several other species.—The roots of A. saponaria are used in Mexico for washing, being a powerful detergent, and form ing a lather with salt water as well as with fresh. The juice of the leaves, made into cakes, is used for the same purpose.