yy —r) ee 
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dons and Monocotyledons. The most evident characteristic of these two 
great divisions of plants is found in the arrangement of the leaf veins. 
Dicotyledonous plants are characterized by netted-veined leaves, whereas 
the monocotyledonous ones may usually be identified by leaves with 
parallel veins. The chief fiber-yielding families of the first division are : 
Linacew ; Flax family; example, flax. 
Malvacew; example, cotton. 
Tiliacee ; example, jute. 
Urticacee or nettle family ; example, hemp. 
Moracea; example, mulberry. 
Of the second division the Gramineew or Grass family, Liliaceae, 
Palme, or Palm family, and Musaceew or Plantain family are the more 
important orders of fiber producers. While a number of netted-veined, 
fibrous plants such as ramie and jute are distinctly tropical in habitat, 
only a few unimportant species are found in the Philippines, and hence 
it appears that families of Monocotyledons are the only ones represented 
by plants of commercial importance in these Islands. 
Structural classification —With the exception of fibers like cotton, 
kapok, ete., which are unicellular seed hairs and termed surface fibers, 
practically all fibers may structurally be classified according to the two 
main groups of families from which they are derived. The dicotyledon- 
ous plants produce the so-called bast fibers, contained in the inner fibrous 
bark of stems and twigs, while on the other hand the commercial fibers 
of monocotyledonous plants are generally found distributed throughout 
the entire stem, where they form the framework which gives rigidity and 
toughness to the plant structure, and hence they are termed structural 
fibers. Such fibers occur in the sheathing leafstalks of plantains, in the 
fleshy leaves of maguey and pineapple, and in the leaves qnd stalks of 
palms and grasses. 
Economic classification —A descriptive catalogue of the useful fiber 
plants of the world by C. R. Dodge* enumerates over one thousand species, 
the more important of which are fully described and treated from the 
botanical, structural, and industrial standpoints. His classification of 
fiber plants based on their uses is both so simple and natural that’ we 
incorporate its main features, at the same time drawing on local fiber 
plants for illustrating the numerous divisions of the scheme : 
A. Spinning fibers. 
1. Fabrice fibers; pineapple, abac&i, ramie, ete. 
2. Netting fibers; palms, rattan, bamboo. 
3. Cordage fibers; abaci, maguey, bamboo, rattan. 
B. Tie material (rough twisted). Palms, rattans, bamboos, grasses. 
©. Natural textiles. Fibrous sheaths of palms. 
D. Brush fibers. Palm fibers, bamboo, 
™Report No. 9, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
