Note 72 — Chapter X
Reading edition
“At Amboyna,” says Labillardiere, “the natives contrive to procure threads from the bastard aloe, called Agave vivipara: the master of the house went and cut a branch of this plant, and resting it on its thigh in order to scrape it with his large knife, and take off its pulp, he obtained from it a fascicle of threads as long as the leaf, and as strong as those of our best hemp.”