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A genus of plants (order Amaryllidaceæ) of which the chief species is the maguey or century plant (A. Americana), wrongly called Aloe. It is from ten to seventy years, according to climate, in attaining maturity, when it produces a gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and perishes. The fermented juice…

purgative. [Plural in form but syntactically singular.] American aloe, Century aloe, the agave. See Agave.

ily of plants much esteemed for their beauty, including the narcissus, jonquil, daffodil, agave, and others.

Any detergent plant, or the part of it used as a detergent, as the roots of Agave Americana, Chlorogalum pomeridianum, etc. [Sp. Amer. & Mex.]

egion of the army was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion. Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly supposed to flower but once in a century; - - hence the name. See Agave. -- The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes, compiled in t…

plants (Bot.), plants capable of yielding fiber useful in the arts, as hemp, flax, ramie, agave, etc.

Composed of firm pulp; succulent; as, the houseleek, cactus, and agave are fleshy plants.

nder Indian, a. -- Manila hemp, the fiber of Musa textilis. -- Sisal hemp, the fiber of Agave sisalana, of Mexico and Yucatan. -- Sunn hemp, a fiber obtained from a leguminous plant (Crotalaria juncea). -- Water hemp, an annual American weed (Acnida cannabina), related to the amaranth.

A Mexican name for a variety of Agave rigida, which furnishes a strong coarse fiber; also, the fiber itself, which is called also pita, and Tampico fiber. [Written also istle.]

A Mexican name for the Sisal hemp (Agave rigida, var. Sisalana); also, its fiber. [Written also heniequen.]

The century plant, a species of Agave (A. Americana). See Agave.

A distilled liquor prepared in Mexico from a species of agave. See Agave.

A fiber obtained from the Agave Americana and other related species, -- used for making cordage and paper. Called also pita fiber, and pita thread.

An intoxicating Mexican drink. See Agave.

t, gall of the earth, and white lettuce. -- Rattlesnake's master (Bot.) (a) A species of Agave (Agave Virginica) growing in the Southern United States. (b) An umbelliferous plant (Eryngium yuccæfolium) with large bristly-fringed linear leaves. (c) A composite plant, the blazing star (Liatris squarrosa). -- Rattlesnak…

The prepared fiber of the Agave Americana, or American aloe, used for cordage; -- so called from Sisal, a port in Yucatan. See Sisal hemp, under Hemp.