3° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bowstring hemp, or the fiber of a species of Sansevieria that grows in 

 rank luxuriance thoiighout the subtropical region of the State. The 

 fiber is finer and softer than Sisal hemp, though not so fine as pine- 

 apple fiber, and would command in price a figure between the two. 

 The yield is about sixty pounds to the ton of leaves. Many other 

 textile plants might be named that have been experimented with by 



A Plant of New Zealand Flax. 



the Government or throvfgh private enterprise, but the most impor- 

 tant, in a commercial sense, have been named. 



There is a considerable list of plants, however, which are the 

 subject of frequent inquiry, but which will never be utilized commer- 

 cially as long as other more useful fibers hold the market. These 

 for the most part produce bast fiber, and the farmer knows them as 

 wild field growths or weeds. They are interesting in themselves, and 

 many of them produce a fair quality of fiber, but to what extent they 

 might be brought into cultivation, or how economically the raw 

 material might be prepared, arc questions the details of which only 



