BAST, or BASS, also called inner bark, 1Ther, or endophieeum (see BARK), the fibrous inferior layer of the bark in the stems of exogenous plants, which is particularly con spicuous in exogenous trees, as a peculiar substance interposed between the true bark and the wood. It consists in great part of sap-vessels (laticiferous vessels, see LATEx and SAs') lying close together, and assuming the appearance of tough fibers. In a fresh state, it has generally a whitish color; and it is often composed of several layers, to which, however, the collective name of bast-layer is very often applied. The uses of this part of plants in the arts are very numerous; the fibers of hemp, flax, jute, etc., are nothing else than bast. The name B., however, is more commonly applied to the inner bark of trees, and is originally Russian, designating the inner bark of the lime-tree (q.v.) or linden-tree, which is employed for making a coarse kind of ropes, mats well known as bast-mats, and a kind of shoes much worn by the Russian peasantry. The trees are cut when full of sap in spring. For B. to be plaited into shoes, young stems of about three years old are preferred; and it is said that two or three are required to make a single pair of shoes. Trees of six or eight years old are cut down for the better kind of mats,
which are exported in large quantities from Russia, and particularly from the port of Archangel, and so much used for packing furniture, for covering tender plants in gardens, supplying strands with which plants are tied, etc. The trees from which the B. is taken are very generally burned for charcoal. After the bark is dried, its layers are easily separated by steeping in water. The finest layers are the inner, and the coarser are the outer ones.—The manufacture of bast-mats is nearly confined to Russia and Sweden. Not fewer than 3,500,000 are annually exported from Russia, and from 500,000 to 800,000 are annually imported into Britain. A few are made in Monmouth shire. Lime-tree B. is used in the s. of Europe for making hats. The name bast-hat is. however, very often given to a hat made of willow-wood planed off in thin ribbons, and plaited in the same manner as straw-hats. The inner bark of grewia didynia, a tree of the same natural order with the lime-tree, is used for making ropes in the Himalaya mountains.