. . . PORT.
The Tree.
Nawa, AMB. I Anao, Areng, Indro, MALA.
Gomuti is a fibrous horsehair-looking substance, produced at the base of the petioles of the Arenga saccharifera, and superior in quality, cheapness, and durability to that obtained from the husk of the Cocoanut. It has great power, in resisting wet, arid is used by the -natives of the Indian islands for every domestic and naval purpose to which cordage is applied. The coarser parts are used as pens by all the tribes who write on paper, and as the arrows for blow-pipes or arrow-tubes. Gomuti, of all vegetable substances, is the le,ast prone to decay ; it is fastened like straw over bamboo thatch round the ends of posts placed in the ground, is mixed with mortar, and is plaited by the Bornoese into ornaments for the arms, legs, and neck. Gomuti fibre is in Europe occasionally heard of by the name of vegetable bristles, but only a portion of the fibres may be likened to stiff bristles, the greater part being more like black horsehair. Dr. Roxburgh, writing in the year 1799, strongly recommended the ex tensive introduction of this palm into India ; and the Arenga now grows in Bangalore, and to some extent in the Nuggnr division of Mysore. The palm-wine and the sugar it yields, the black fibres for cables and cordage, and the pith for sago, independently of many other uses, are objects of commercial importance. This palm is to be found in all the Asiatic islands, especially in low moist situations, and along the banks of rivers.
The native shipping of all kinds are entirely equipped with tbe cordage of the goinuti. It undergoes no preparation but that of spinning and twisting,—no material similar to tar or pitch, indispensable to the preservation of hempen cord age, being necessary. The best goniuti is the produce of the islands farthest east, as Amboyna and the other spice islands. That of Java has a coarse ligneous fibre ; the produce of Matura is better. Gomuti is generally sold in twisted shreds or yarns. Besides the horsehair - like fibres, there is at the base of the leaves a fine gossaMer - like woolly material, Baru, MALAY, ICawal, Jay., much employed in caulking ships, as stuffing for cushions, and as tinder. Eju was sent to the London Exhibition of 1851. The bundles of the coarse and fine fibres were about six feet in length, and about twelve inches in diameter, neatly tied up with split cane. Interspersed among the coarser We're some finer fibres, something like black wool. The sinnet is coarse, but strong, and broke with a weight of 85 lbs., when coir of about the same size broke with 75 lbs. ; but the comparison was not very exact. Besides making strong and durable cord age, the eju fibre is no doubt applicable to a variety of purposes for which horsehair and bristles are now employed.—Royle, Fib. Pl.; Seeman on Palms ; Voigt ; Roxburgh ; Illorrison's Comp. Desc.