Aga've, a genus of plants, popularly known as American aloes. They are generally large, and have a massive tuft of fleshy leaves with a spiny apex. They live for many years--ten to seventy, according to circumstances--before flowering. This long delay gives them the common name of century plant. When the time for flowering approaches, a tall stem springs from the center of the tuft of leaves and grows very rapidly until it reaches a height of fifteen, twenty or even forty feet, and bears, toward the end, a large number of flowers. When the fruit has matured the stem dies to the ground. The best known species is the common American aloe, now extensively grown in the warmer parts of Europe and Asia. The sap, when fermented, yields a beverage resembling cider, called by the Mexicans pulque. The leaves are used as fodder; their fibers are formed into thread, cord and ropes; an extract from the leaves is used as a substitute for soap; slices of the withered flower-stem are used as razor-strops.