2. Woody fibres may be: (a) the stems and twigs of exogenous plants, or (b) the roots of exogenous plants entire, or subdivided into withes for use in basketry or a rough kind of cordage, or for coarse thread for stitching and binding (as in canoe manufacture) ; or (c) the wood of exogenous trees reduced to layers or splints, for baskets, or for excelsior; or (d) the wood of certain exogenous trees reduced to pulp for paper.
3. Structural fibres are derived (a) from the structural system of the stalks, leaf stems and leaves of monocotyledonous plants (as the agaves and palms) occurring as isolated fibro vascular bundles, surrounded in nature by a pithy, spongy, corky or often soft cellular mass, covered with a thick epidermis. They eve the plants rigidity and also serve as water ducts; or (b) the entire stems or leaves of the same plants, simply split or shredded (such as straw plait) ; or (c) the fibrous portions of the leaves or fruits of certain exogenous plants when de prived of their epidermis and soft cellular tissue (the vegetable wool from pine needles).
Under division B, simple cellular structure, the (4) Surface fibres are recognized as (a) the hairs surrounding the seeds or seed envel opes of exogenous plants, and usually contained in a pod or capsule (as cotton) ; (b) hair-like growths, or tomentum, produced on the surfaces of stems, leaves or leaf-buds of plants (as pule) ; or (c) fibrous material produced in the form of epidermal strips from the endogens (as raffia). The (5) Pseudo-fibres, strictly speaking, are not simple fibres, but fibrous ma terial employed as substitutes for the true fibres. These are: (a) certain mosses, used as pack ing substances ; (b) certain leaves and marine weeds, also used for packing; (c) seaweeds wrought into fish-lines or cordage, and (d) fungus growths employed in some of the eco nomic uses to which true fibres are put.
A review of the uses of fibres in the arts, by man, shows seven general classes of eco nomic employment, each of which may be sub divided further to illustrate special utility.
1. The Spinning Fibres enter into the high est forms of manufacture, such as the produc tion of cloth and woven or netted fabrics, and they also include the cordage fibres. Among spinning fibres those for the production of fabrics naturally are the most important com mercially. The fibres of the first rank, which enter into fine and coarse textures for wearing apparel, house furnishings, awnings, sails, etc.,
are chiefly cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, pineapple fibre and the finer manila hemps; those of the second 'rank, jute, coconut fibre or coir; and some of the agaves which find use in burlap or gunny, webbing, rough sacks, coarse floor cov erings, etc. The netting fibres, also included in the spinning fibres, are derived from a very much wider range of plants, many of which are not in cultivation. Besides cotton, flax and ramie, employed chiefly in laces and knit goods, nets, etc., there are scores of tree basts, agave, palm and grass fibres which find use, both commercial and native, in the manufacture of all kinds of nets, hammocks and similar articles. A third group of the spinning fibres comprises those employed in cordage manufacture. They include all of the fabric fibres mentioned above, the so-called hard fibres, Manila and sisal hemps, coir, etc., as well as Sunn hemp, Mauri tius hemp, the bow-string hemps, New Zealand flax and Tampico, used for making twines, and many forms of fibre used in the hand manu facture of rope and by natives in their rude domestic economy.
2. Tie The fibres employed as tie material are legion; many of them can scarcely be called commercial forms as they are used only by the datives in the countries where they are produced. The tie material is usually the peeled bark of trees rich in bast, stripped or shredded palm leaves, the tougher grasses, and even twigs and roots used with no special preparation, but merely twisted when green, or freshly cut, into rough cordage for the building of huts, enclosures and even for con structing rope suspension bridges. Raffia, used by nurserymen as a ready-to-hand tying ma terial, is an example.
3. Natural are the nature woven fabrics of tropical countries, which are used as substitutes for cloth, and which are prepared by simply stripping from the plant, in sheets or layers of fibrous substances, and beating. The Tappa or Kapa cloth of the Pacific Islands is an example. Others are the lace barks, the satin-like Cuba bast, employed in ladies hats, the ribbon-like bast used for ciga rette wrappers, etc.; also the fibrous sheaths from the bases of the leaf-stalks of certain palms. The separated and hand-twisted fila ments of many of these cloth substitutes are also used for rough cordage.