[W/K] :: century plant

  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]

  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.
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     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]

  century plant
       n : tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous
           sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes; some
           cultivated for ornament or for fiber [syn: agave, American
           aloe]