BOTANY. 311 



thin walls of habitations, to prevent sudden variations in and excess 

 of temperature. The marine algae, such as seawrack, may be termed 

 a sea-wool, which has this advantage over ordinary wool, that it does 

 not harbor insects, and undergoes no change by dryness or humidity, 

 provided it be not exposed to the solar rays : in that case it undergoes 

 a complete transformation from being brown and flexible it be- 

 comes white and almost rigid. In the dark, on the contrary, it is un- 

 changeable, unfermentable, imputrescent, uninflammable, and unat- 

 tackable by insects. At first it has the objection of being hygromatic ; 

 but a single washing in fresh water removes the salt, and then its 

 properties become so beneficial, that a celebrated architect has styled 

 it the " flannel of health for habitations." It has been applied suc- 

 cessfully between the tiles and ceiling of a railway station, also in a 

 portable house intended for the use of officers at the camp of Chalons ; 

 also double panels, the intermediate space being filled with seaweed, 

 have been prepared for the construction of temporary barracks at the 

 Isle of Reunion. The Consulting Committee of Public Health, the 

 Society of Civil Engineers, the Council for Civic Structures, etc., 

 have expressed their approval of the judicious employment of the 

 marine algaa, and state that the popularization of this process will be 

 of great service in dwellings, especially in those of the humbler class, 

 as it renders them both more agreeable and salubrious. 



WHAT ARE JUTE AND GUNNY-BAGS? 



The word "jute" is derived from the Bengalee term Cliuti, which 

 means false or deceptive, on account of the fibre having the appear- 

 ance of beautiful silk when it is exposed to the sun for drying. It is 

 the fibre of a plant which is very extensively cultivated throughout 

 Bengal, and of which there are several varieties. One of these 

 species furnishes the gunny so well known in commerce. The word 

 " gunny " is a corruption of Goni, the native name on the Coroman- 

 del coast for the fibres of the Corchorus Olitorius. These fibres are 

 made into the coarse cloth which we call gunny ; also into cordage, 

 and even paper. 



Jute is indigenous to the soil of India, and has been cultivated by 

 the natives for centuries. The manufacture of gunny-bags, or chut- 

 ties, as they are called, gives employment to tens of thousands of the 

 poorer inhabitants in Bengal. " Men, women and children," says Mr. 

 Henley, " find occupation therein. Boatmen in their spare moments, 

 husbandmen, palanquin-carriers and domestic servants everybody, 

 in fact, being Hindoos (for Mussuhnen spin cotton only), pass their 

 leisure moments distaff in hand, spinning gunny twist. Its prepara- 

 tion, together with the weaving into lengths, forms the never-failing 

 resource of that most humble, patient and despised of created beings, 

 the Hindoo widow. This manufacture spares her from being a charge 

 on her family ; she can always earn her bread. Among these causes 

 will be discerned the very low prices at which gunny manufactures 

 are produced in Bengal, and which has attracted the demand of the 

 whole commercial world. There is, perhaps, no other article so uni- 

 versally diffused over the globe as the Indian gunny-bag. All the 

 finer and long-stapled jute is reserved for the export trade, in which 



