Callicarpa coma yields the aroosha fibre of Chi t tag,ong. Mr. Sconce had some of tho fibres of this plant pre pared, rust by cutting the stems, which grew 3 or 4 feet high, and then steeping. The inner bark was then easily stripped off. Thia was afterwards heckled, and a portion of the fibre spun into thread, but it does not appear of much value in a country where so many others abound. Captain Thompson reported that a lino made from the fibre, forwarded from Chittagong, broke at once, without stretching, with only 127 lbs., though only the finest and largest of the material was made into this line. A line of Russian hemp of the same size will sustain with ease 400 lbs. ; so that this fibre is much too weak for either sailcloth or cordage. It, however, possesses all the free and kindly nature of flax, and even smells like flax. It is easily worked, with little or no waste.floyie, Fib. Pl. p. 310.
Ca/otropiz, a genus of the Asclepiaceaa, has three species, gigantea, herbacea, and procera, which furnish valuable fibres, all of similar character. The plants grow quite wild in all kinds of lone places, and only rare attempts to cultivate them have ever been made. This is the more remarkable, because the people all know the exceeding strength of the cord made from their fibres. Dr. Wight says of the fibres he tried, that the yercum plant, C. gigantea, yields by far the strongest fibre it is a most common plant, and may yet become a valuable article of export, if a less costly mode of obtaining it, without injuring its quality, can be found. One variety has cream-coloured, and the other rosy purple flowers, both, however, yielding indifferently the same excellent fibre. It is called popularly the gigantic swallow-wort ; Mader, Ak, or Akund, in Hindustani ; Yercum or Yeriku in Tamil ; and Nella jelledoo in Telugu. Its fibre, which is strong, white, and fine, resembles Belgian flax, and if skilfully prepared, is- reported to be well calculated for prime warp yarns and capable of being spun into the finest thread, and to be worth £100 per ton for such purposes. The following is the result of experiments of the strength of fibres, showing their brealdng weights : Coir, . ...... 224 lbs.
Pooley mungee (Hibiscus cannabinus), . 290 Marool (Sanseviera Zeylanica), . 316 Cotton (Gossypiurn herbaceum), . . 346 Cutthalay nar (Agave Americana), . . 362 Janapa (Crotalaria juncea), Sunn, Hindi, 407 Yercum (Calotropis gigantea), . . . 552 It finds a habitat, spontaneously, where nothing else will grow, indifferent alike to drought or hungry soil, the seeds being wafted about in their silk cotton envelope, which, by the way, has been spun into fine cloth. The fibre is used locally for ,atring, cordage,
tiger traps, ordinary nets, and durable fishing lines, and for all purposes where strength and endurance are required. The plant is used more for medicinal pur poses and for the manurial properties of its leaves when ploughed into paddy lands, than for its excellent fibre. It is a. perennial shrub. The seeds in its large green pod are enveloped in a silky white fibre, which has been mixed with silk and cotton in fabrics. The charcoal of its roots is prized in the manufacture of gunpowder. Its leaves, buds, bark, and milky juice are employed in native medicine, for their emetic, diaphoretic, and pur gative properties ; and the inspissated juice resembles caoutchouc, but is a conductor of electricity. It yields an ardent spirit. It is the Bar spirit of the Western Ghats of India, and, according to Barth, the Giya of the African.
Cotton is largely grown in India, is almost the sole fibrous product fabricated into cloths for ordinary cloth ing, much of it being exported raw to Europe and America, to be returned in the form of twist and yarn, piece-goods, etc. About half of it is sent to Great Britain, the bulk of the other half going to France, Austria, and Italy.
1874-75, . . 5,600,086 cwt. Rs. 15,25,73,416 1875-7G, . . 5,009,788 13,27,89,635 1876-77, . . 4,557,915 11,74,61,836 1877-78, . . 3,459,077 9,38,35,340 1878-79, . . 2,966,060 7,91,30,458 1879-80, . . 3,949,701 11,14,91,778 It is largely grown in the tracts 1500 to 3000 feet above the sea. The E. I. Company made grea,t efforts to improve the staple, and to introduce new varieties, and the produce of Dharwar, Hingungliat, Nagpur, Berar, and Kandesh. Cotton ropes and cotton canvas are largely made from it.
Coir is the commercial name for the fibre of the cocoanut, Cocos nucifera. It is very extensively used throughout the south of Asia. Towards the middle of the 19th century, in Malabar and Ceylon, every available spot within the influence of the sea-breeze was being devoted to the growth of the coeoanut. Along the western coast of the Madras Provinces, the wavy downs near the sea-borders, which had hitherto produced only a stunted and worthless crop of grass, were everywhere levelled, broken up, and manured, so as to form the beds of future plantations.