4. The Brush These include such commercial forms as Tampico, Palmetto, Pal myra, Kitool, Monkey Bass, Piassaba and cocoa fibre, employed in the manufacture of brushes, and as substitutes for animal bristles as well as the coarser forms, such as broom corn, broom-root and even twigs and splints as employed in street-sweeping machines.
5. The Plaiting and Rough Weaving Fi is another large group, which in cludes many kinds not to be classed as commer cial, yet of greatest importance to the natives of the countries where they grow. They are em ployed in articles of attire and ornament and for use in the domestic economy. The most important commercially are the straw-plaits from wheat, rye, barley and rice straw (the Tuscan and Japanese braids). Other forms are split from palm leaves, such as Carludovica palmata, used in weaving Panama hats; plaits are also pro duced from various fibrous substances used entire, as the tree basts, and even thin shavings of close-grained woods — the °chip° in millinery trimmings. This group also includes the com mercial matting fibres produced from grasses and sedges, as well as thatch materials of every description. The basketry fibres are likewise classed in this group, and they are legion, for they include not only the entire range of palm fibres, the grasses, reeds and rushes, yucca fibre, the leaf stems of ferns, etc., whole or split, but osier and splints from the common woods, pine, ash, hickory and others. Then there are many miscellaneous uses such as for °willow wares furniture, .chair seats, screen panels, etc., em ploying bamboo, osier, rattan, rushes and splints.
6. The Filling Fibres are of less import ance than any of the preceding, though alto gether they form a large group and include some valuable commercial forms. Their most common employment is in upholstery; wadding, from cotton ; feather substitutes for filling pil lows and cushions, as the silk cottons (uvege table silks), Pdowns,s kapok and fibrous ma terial from the surfaces of leaves and stems of plants or from their capsules or fruit; mattress and furniture filling, as tow or waste of the spinning fibres (flax, etc.), unprepared basts, straw and grasses; the curled hair substitutes or Spanish moss, Crin vegetal, corn husks and others. Oakum for caulking ships, the leaves of reeds or flags used for filling the seams in casks, as well as the fibres used for stiffen ing mortar, or the staff used in exposition build ings, are included in this category, palmetto fibre and New Zealand flax being examples.
Many fibres and fibrous substances are used as packing material, but they need not be enu merated.
7. Paper Materials.— This group of fibres might include the whole category of fibrous sub stances, for there is scarcely a fibre that cannot be made into paper, the expense of preparation being the main question in determining its avail ability. The Textile papers employ the spinning fibres, in the raw state, in the form of waste, tow, jute butts, old manila rope, cotton and linen rags, etc. The Bast papers include such Eastern fibres as Japanese paper mulberry, the tree basts, etc. The Palm papers are made from palmetto, yucca and many of the tropical palms. The Bamboo and Grass papers include bamboo, esparto and other grasses, straw and maize; and lastly, the Wood pulp papers are made from the cellulose, chemically prepared, from spruce, poplar and other native woods.
The employment of fibre in the domestic economy must go back to the most primitive times, for among the uncivilized races of man the world over we find a dependence upon fibre plants for utensils, cordage, clothing, the building and furnishing of their huts, second only in importance to their dependence upon edible plants for food. And these plants supply hundreds of fibres which the inventive genius of the age cannot afford to use commercially. So we have two great groups of fibres, eco nomically speaking. The °native° forms used to supply the common wants of the people of the countries where they grow and the fibres recog nized as commercial forms because they have been found best adapted to certain uses in the industrial world and have a stated market value. Some of these have come down to us from remote ages, and the larger number long ago established their places because they were proved to be the best for the purposes for which employed, a veritable survival of the fittest. The discovery of many new fibres therefore is hardly a possibility, although we may discover new uses for well-known forms hitherto not largely employed for any purpose. But even such fibres will scarcely find a place among the fibres of first rank, but must fill the places of the better and fully recognized com mercial forms as substitutes, and therefore are worth less money.