FIBROUS MATERIALS. Fibres are either cellular in their structure, like the cott,on, Bombax cotton, maclar fibres, or they consist of woody tissue or fibre, like the lotus fibre, flax, hemp, jute, sunn, etc. But the cellular fibres are not the product of stem or leaves, but of the seed-vessels, etc. Plants whose stems and leaves axe simply formed of cells or vessels yield no fibre& On the outbreak of the war with Russia in 1855, the attention of British manufacturers was directed towards the probable effect which the stoppage of the Russian trade would produce upon the supply of flax and hemp, the greater portion of which had been derived from that empire. Their importations of flax from all parts, in 1853, had amounted to 94,169 tons, and Rusaia alone contributed 63,399 tons towards that quantity ; and out of 63,142 tons of hemp imported during the same year, 41,819 tons were obtained from Russia alone. The total value of these importations, computed upon the average rate of the year, amounted in. round numbers to £3,500,000 sterling. Under these circumsta,nces,attention was forcibly directed towards India as a possible source of supply, and the result was that Indian fibres were proved to possess all the necessary intrinsic properties, while in point of flexibility and strength some of them are infinitely superior to Russian produce. Very much was then done by Dr. John Forbes Royle, Dr. Alexander Hunter, the British Govern ment, and the Governments of India,:to extend our knowledge of the fibrous and textile materials of South-Eastern Asia, and the result was to make generally known that each district of India and of the south and east of Asia has its own particular fibres, all largely utilized by the people, and amongst tbe most deserving of attention may be enumerated the following :— The abundance of fibrous materials in S.E. Asia. may be illustrated by mentioning that while they are exported from India to the value of twenty to thirty millions sterling annually, the little of any kinds that are brought to India is almost all re-exported.
Southern India is abundantly productive of fibrous materials for every description of textile manufacture, from the coarsest packing cloth, to the finest cambric, lawn, or muslin. It would be impossible to say how far the cultivation of fibrous plants might bo carried, and what would be the demand for them at Madras, if properly prepared for the market ; but there is no doubt that a slovenly mode of preparing these materials has hitherto tended greatly to interfere with their sale in the European market.
In Bengal there are several plants adapted for tho manufacture of textile fabrics. A species of Urtica, of whose fibres the much-admired grass cloth of China is made, is cultivated in Rungpur, and, as rheea, is grown in Assam and Cachar. The pine-apple plant, too, from whidt a beautiful fabric is manufactured in Manilla, ia indigenous in Sylhet and Assam, and is extensively cultivated about Dacca. The fibres of both plants are used by the natives for making fishing lines and nets ; but up to 1851 no attempt htui been made in Bengal to weave them into fine cloths. The mune remark, perhaps, applies to munga (Sanseviera Zeylanica), the fibre,s of which aro commonly used to make bowstrings. Calotropis gigantea possesses a fine silky fibre ; and some varieties of the plan tain tree, as the Musa textilis, yield fibres which, like the abaca hemp of Manilla, are capable of being converted into strong thread or cord, such as the Dacca spinners sometimes use for the bows with which they tease cotton. The people of Rungpur 'flake cloths of the fibres of pat ; and there can be little doubt that, if encouragement were given to them and other spinners and weavers in Bengal, they would, with the skill which they possess in these arts, also succeed in converting other tnaterials into fabrics.
In the Tenasserim Prorinccs ropes are frequently made from the barks of Paritium inacrophyllum, P. tiliaceum, Hibiscus tnacrophyllus, Ste.rculia guttata, and Sterculia ornata.