[W/K] :: Agave Americana

  Sisal grass \Si*sal" grass`\, Sisal hemp \Si*sal" hemp`\,
     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.
     [1913 Webster]

  Pita \Pi"ta\, n. [Sp.] (Bot.)
        (a) A fiber obtained from the Agave Americana and other
            related species, -- used for making cordage and paper.
            Called also pita fiber, and pita thread.
        (b) The plant which yields the fiber.
            [1913 Webster]

  Maguey \Mag"uey\, n. [Sp. maguey, Mexican maguei and metl.]
     (Bot.)
     Any of several species of Agave, such as the century
     plant ({Agave Americana}), a plant requiring many years to
     come to maturity and blossoming only once before dying; and
     the Agave atrovirens, a Mexican plant used especially for
     making pulque, the source of the colorless Mexican liquor
     mescal; and the cantala ({Agave cantala), a Philippine
     plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine. See
     Agave.
     [1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
  
     2. A hard fibre used in making coarse twine, derived from the
        Philippine Agave cantala ({Agave cantala); also called
        cantala.
        [WordNet 1.5]

  Agave \A*ga"ve\ ([.a]*g[=a]"v[-e]), prop. n. [L. Agave, prop.
     name, fr. Gr. 'agayh`, fem. of 'agayo`s illustrious, noble.]
     (Bot.)
     A genus of plants (order Amaryllidaceae) of which the chief
     species is the maguey or century plant ({Agave Americana),
     wrongly called Aloe. It takes from ten to seventy years,
     according to climate, to attain maturity, when it produces a
     gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and
     perishes. The juice has purgative and diuretic properties.
     The fermented juice is the pulque of the Mexicans;
     distilled, it yields mescal. A strong thread and a tough
     paper are made from the leaves, and the wood has many uses.
     [1913 Webster]

  Amole \A*mo"le\, n. [Mex.] (Bot.)
     Any detergent plant, or the part of it used as a detergent,
     as the roots of Agave Americana, Chlorogalum
     pomeridianum, etc. [Sp. Amer. & Mex.]
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

  Century \Cen"tu*ry\, n.; pl. Centuries. [L. centuria (in
     senses 1 & 3), fr. centum a hundred: cf. F. centurie. See
     Cent.]
     1. A hundred; as, a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a
        hundred things. [Archaic.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And on it said a century of prayers.  --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place
        over two centuries ago.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Century, in the reckoning of time, although often used
           in a general way of any series of hundred consecutive
           years (as, a century of temperance work), usually
           signifies a division of the Christian era, consisting
           of a period of one hundred years ending with the
           hundredth year from which it is named; as, the first
           century ({a. d. 1-100 inclusive); the seventh
           century ({a.{d}. 601-700); the eighteenth century
           ({a.{d}. 1701-1800). With words or phrases connecting
           it with some other system of chronology it is used of
           similar division of those eras; as, the first century
           of Rome (A.U.C. 1-100).
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Rom. Antiq.)
        (a) A division of the Roman people formed according to
            their property, for the purpose of voting for civil
            officers.
        (b) One of sixty companies into which a legion of the army
            was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     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 the 16th century by Protestant scholars at
        Magdeburg.
        [1913 Webster]

  Agave americana
       n : widely cultivated American monocarpic plant with
           greenish-white flowers on a tall stalk; blooms only after
           ten to twenty years and then dies [syn: American agave]