FIBER, or FIBRE, a filament, or thread, the minute part of either animal or vegetable substances. The scientific use of fiber is described with regard to the animal kingdom under muscle and tissue; and with regard to the vegetable kingdom, under vegetable tissue, wood, and woody fiber. In its more popular but perfectly accurate use, the word includes the hair and wool of quadru peds, the threads of the cocoons of silk worms, etc.; the fibers of the leaves of plants and of their inner bark, the elon gated cells or hairs connected with the seeds of plants, and the ordinary mate rials used in making cordage and textile fabrics. Mineral substances are called fibrous in structure even when it is im possible to detach the apparent fibers. The only fibrous mineral which has been used for textile fabrics is AmiantInts, a variety of asbestos, but that only to a very limited extent. The animal sub stances used are divided into two classes '—the first including hair and wool, and the second the silk of cocoons. Nearly all textile fabrics are made from the first, and the wool of the sheep is the most important division of the class. The hair of the goat, alpaca, camel, bison, and other animals is also used. The hair of most animals is, however, in general, too short to allow of its being used for textile manufacture. The
vegetable kingdom yields the largest number of useful fibers, which are ob tained from natural orders very differ ent from each other. The carogenous or cryptogamous plants do not, how ever, afford any. From exogenous plants, fibers are obtained from the inner bark, as in the case of flax, hemp, etc., and from the hairs of the fruit, as in cotton. In endogenous plants the fiber is sometimes obtained from the fruit, as in the cocoanut fiber. The spathe of some palms is also used. Some of the slender palms called rat tans, and the bulrush, etc., are much used, on account of their fibrous nature, for wicker-work, chair-bottoms, and simi lar purposes.
The most valuable fibers obtained from endogenous plants come from the leaf or leaf-stalk. Among the useful vegetable fibers those of flax, hemp, and cotton have long held the first place. The principal additions, of late years, have been New Zealand flax, jute, Sunn or Sunn hemp, coir, Pita flax, Abaca or Manila hemp, Chinese grass, and some others. One of the most important uses of vegetable fiber is in the manufacture of paper.