MARSDENIA TENACISSIMA. W. and A.
Asclepias tenacissima, I A. tomentosa, Herb.
Roxb. I Gymnema tense., Spr.
Tong,us, . . HIND. I Chittee, Jeti, . • TAM.
The Rajmahal bowstring creeper grows in 'the Peninsula of India, in the Rajmahal Hills, Pale man; Nepal, and Chittagong. It has small greenish-yellow flowers ; from wounds in it a milk-like, juice issues, which hardens into an elastic substance, with, properties like caoutchouc, and from the bark, fine silky fibres are obtained, of which the Rajmahal mountaineers make their bowstrings. These are said to last for five years, though in constant use and exposed to all sorts of weather. In preparing the fibres of this plant, the hill people not put the stems in water, but let them stand in the sun for a day till from the ends, when cut, there exudes a milky juice, which thickens into an elastic sub stance, like, indeed forming one kind of, caout chouc, acting in the same way in removing black lead marks. The fibres are beautiful, durable,
and strong ; some twine made with it bearing 248 and 343 lbs. in the dry and wetted states, when hemp twine bore only 158 and 190 lbs. in the same State. The stems are cut into lengths, and then slit down the middle ; then dried, and afterwards steeped in water for about an hour or more, when the fine silky filaments are separated. A 14 - inch rope in Calcutta was found to break with 903 lbs., when- Europe rope broke with 1293 lbs., and others with greater weights. It stood ninth in strength, but second in elasticity. 'Mr. Taylor states it might be easily cultivated. —Journ. Agri-Hortic. Soc., 1844, p. 22 ; Royle, ,Fib. Roxb. ii, p. 51; Voigt, p. 537.