龙舌兰

[ noun ]
widely cultivated American monocarpic plant with greenish-white flowers on a tall stalk; blooms only after ten to twenty years and then dies
<noun.plant>

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}.


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.


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\, n. [L. Agave, prop. name, fr. Gr. ?, fem. of ?
illustrious, noble.] (bot.)
A genus of plants (order {Amaryllidace[ae]}) of which the
chief species is the maguey or century plant ({Agave
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 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.


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.]

And on it said a century of prayers. --Shak.

2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place
over two centuries ago.

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).

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.

{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.