SI 



\ 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Apkil 1, 18G6. 



Eig. 88. JUT E. — (Corchorm capsulans.) 



a. Capsule. b. Flower. 



A 



WHAT IS JUTE? 



ETEIl such an event as a great and devastating 

 lire, during which the public journals announce 

 that a great many bales of Jute were totally destroyed, 

 we hear in many directions the inquiry — " What is 

 Jute ? " A remote notion seems to be entertained 

 by some, that it is a kind of vegetable fibre re- 



sembling hemp, which is used as a substitute for 

 that valuable material in the manufacture of ropes 

 and cordage. Others possess an idea that it is 

 fraudulently mixed with silk in the manufacture of 

 silken fabrics ; and not a few, that its sole use is for 

 the fabrication of paper. 



Jute is a name given first in India to a fibre com- 

 prising the inner bark, or liber, of two species of 



