The following directions for peeling the Chu-ma or Tehou-nia in China, are translated from the Chinese. When the steins are all got in, they are split longitudinally with knives of iron or of bamboo. The bark is first reinoved, then the lower layer (which ia white, and covered with a shrivelled pellicle which comes off by itself) is scmped off with a knife. The interior fibres are then seen ; they are to be removed and softened in boiling water. If the Tchou-ma be peeled in winter, the stems must be previously steeped in tepid water, in order that they may be the more easily split. The first layer of Tchou-ma is coarse and hard, and is only good for making common materials ; the second is a little more supple mid fine ; the third, which is the best, is used for making extremely fine light articles.
In China, this plant is of great value, in the Southern States of N. America the plant has flourished, but the 1880 Report on the Calcutta Botanic Garden doubts whether rhea fibre can be produced cheaply in that part of India.
In China, fields of rhea are said to lost, with care and manure, for 80 to 100 years. It grows with the greatest vigour in damp warm climates. In the islands of the Indian Archipelago it is cultivated under shade. It requires a light but fertile soil, but it must be well drained. It is propagated from the separated roots, from layers, slips, or cuttings ; in this way five cuttings of grown stems can be expected in the year after planting ; from seed, no crop can be expected before the third year.
M. Favier describes the plant as giving out several stems, of which the number increases in proportion to the development of the root, which forrns a kind of tuft or bush. The stems are woody, . and have the appearance of thick, strong rods, the height varying from 5 to 12 feet. The roots, slips, or layers should be planted 18 inches apart, and after the first crop the alternate rows should be transplanted into new fields, leaving the re mainder, about 3500 plants per acre, to spread and cover the ground. The yield in Java is said to be 44 stems per year from each stool, taken in four cuttings. Each stem in its green state weighs about 1 lb.; 100 lbs. weight of green stems yields 5 lbs. of a raw fibre or filament, which, by Muspratt's analysis, as quoted by M. Favier, con tains 66 per cent. of pure cellulose. In the official reports t,o the India Office, with native hand treat ment the crop is said to be 1000 lbs. of raw fibre per acre, taken in four cuttings. M. Easier states that in Algeria 1400 lbs. of fibrous thongs was the crop per acre, as calculated by Mr. Hardy, ex - Director of tbe Botanical Gardens there ; while in the south of France as much as 1600 lbs. of filament have been obtained to the
acre.
Mr. P. L. Simmonds, in 1873 (Journal, xxi. p. 762), stated that the crop gathered in Jamaica amounted to 300 lbs. per acre at each cutting, and that there had been five cuttings in the year, making the yield three-fourths of a ton per acre per year. While Mr. Bainbridge, in the discussion on Mr. L. Wray's paper, in 1869, stated that the result of his own experience in Assam was 750 lbs. green nettles, wiiiqh gave 45 lbs. weight of fibre in each of three cbttings, making only 135 lbs. per acre per year (Joi4al, xix. p. 453). The ii,t\s yield appears to depend le soil, climate, and treatment. The properties of e rhea fibre place it in the first position among ve table fibres ; it is second to none in strength, whil.'b-ike fineness or attenuation of the fibre places it beTore flax, and it is equalled only by the pine-apple fibre. It can be used for any textile purpose, having been mixed with cotton, wool, and silk to advan tage ; it is in special demand for sailcloth, table napery, curtains, aud tapestry ; but from the very limited supply as yet available, the appli cations of this beautiful fibre are yet in their infancy.
Ban rhea, or Bun rhea, or Bon rhea is the jungle rhea of the Lepcha of Nepal, and is sup posed by some to be the Dom rhea or China nettle in an uncultivated or wild state. But of this there is no proof, and it is more than pro bable tbat it is a distinct species of Boehmeria, possessed of many of the same properties as the ramee or rhea nettle. It grows very common in all the Assam province, but it is cultivated largely by the hill tribes on the west of Yunnan, and to a small extent by the Singpho and Dhoannea tribes of the North-Eastern Frontier of India, to be fabricated into a coarse cloth, but chiefly for nets. A five-inch rope of rhea fibre and one of Bon rhea each broke within a few pounds of each other, after sustaining a weight of more than nine tons. It is reported to be all that can be desired for either canvas or lines, and only requires to be known to be generally used for that purpose. The Bon rhea thrives best in the vicinity of water or of running streams. When unmolested, it grows into a tree, but by proper management of it any quantity of young shoots can be obtained ; and as the divided roots of the plant afford numerous shoots, it can be propagated by slips as well as by the seed. This fibre is about 5 feet in length, brown in colour, strong and flexible.—Roxb.; Voigt ; Royle's Fib. Plants; Dr. 211`Gowan; Theophile Merman on Ramie, 1874 ; Dickson's Fibre Plants • Cal. Bot. Garden Report, 1880 ; Society of Art's To. See Jute ; Musa.