FIBER. This is a term used to designate the filaments or slender threads that constitute the substance of the bones, cartilages, ligaments, membranes, nerves, veins, arteries and muscles, and the slender threads composing the structure of plants, and found also in minerals, is termed fiber. Any fine, slender root, thread or filament is a fiber. Fibrin is a + peculiar organic com pound substance, solid, tough, elastic, and com posed of threads, fibers, and found in animals. and vegetables. When pure it is whitish, inodor ous, and insoluble in water Fibrin, both in ani mals and vegetables, is nearly identical, as the following analyses will show .
Fiber abstrusely considered is one of the most important productions in nature. Among the families of plants producing valuable fiber for manufacturing purposes are the mallow family, noted in all parts of the world for the excellent fiber of its bark. Cotton belongs to the fiber plants. In this plant, however, it is the woolly envelope of the seeds that is the valuable part. The nettle family, in all its subdivisions, is noted for the abundance and excellence of its fiber. The hemp sub-family contains not only the hemp plant but the hop. The bread fruit sub-family; includes not only the different species of mul berry, but also the paper mulberry, the last probably the most useful of the whole. The nettle family proper, in all parts of the world, produces valuable fiber plants. The famous china grass, (Bcehmeria nivia), is stronger than hemp, and belongs to what are denominated stingless nettles. The Dog-bane family, (Apoey num,) is represented by plants remarkable for their fineness. A. eannabinum, or Indian hemp, Is one of these. The milk-weed family, (Ascle
pias,) is another family remarkable for its valu able fibers. Lately, it is asserted, tbat some members of this family produce a gum analo gous to India rubber and that it may be pro duced, by cultivation, in paying quantities. Among the fiber plants in most conamon cultiva tion in various parts of the world, and repre senting an enormous rural and manufacturing industry are flax, hemp, jute, manilla "grass," the latter obtained from a species of plantain, (Masa te.rtilis). All the plantain and banana tribe abound in fiber. Cocoanut fiber is the product of the tree, (Cocos nucifera). The pineapple tribe furnishes fiber from which most exquisite fabrics are made. Esparte, or Esparto, (Stipa tenacivsinoo, is a fiber grass of great value. Sandals, mats, ropes, baskets, nets, and paper are produced from it, and it has even been used in Spain for hurdles in which to pen sheep. Cotton is without doubt the most Naluable fiber Southern Germany, and in the United States up to the latitude of Tennessee. It is even culti vated successfully in some parts of Ohio, and in the southern portions of the Michigan lake shore region with protection in winter. If, however, the wood is frozen it is killed. In its proper climate the fig is a moderately large tree, indig enous to the cou,ntries bordering on the Medi terranean sea, and in Syria, Persia, Asia Minor, and North Africa. It is said only to have been found wild near Urfa, and on the banks of the Northern Euphrates. Cortes first carried the fig to America in the ycar 1560.