26 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
(Urtica nivea, L.) a plant belonging to the Urtieaceous (Nettle) family. 
here again we see how the same tenacity of fibre exists in the 
several members of this vegetable groupe, as exhibited in the common 
stinging Nettle, and still more remarkably in the Urtica cannabina, 
U. heterophylla, and another species of Boehmeria which we have next 
to speak of, namely the 
Pooan, or Puya fibre of Nepal and Sikkim. 
For our knowledge and for our possession of specimens of this, we 
are indebted to Dr. Campbell, the Hon. E. I. C. Political Resident at 
Darjeeling in Sikkim. That gentleman has kindly presented them, and 
an interesting pamphlet he has lately published on the subject, to 
Dr. Hooker, who forwarded them to the Royal Gardens’ Museum. 
Specimens of the plant prove it to be derived from the Boehmeria Puya, 
Wall. Cat. (Urtica frutescens, Roxb. not Thunb.), a species botanically 
very closely allied to the preceding B. nivea. It has been long and 
extensively used in India for various purposes, and when properly 
dressed is said to be quite equal to the best European flax; while it 
makes better sail-cloth than any other vegetable fibre produced in India. 
Rope formed of it has been tested in the Arsenal and Government 
Dock-yards, and found perfectly equal to any and all purposes for 
which eordage made of Russian hemp has hitherto been employed. 
In preparing this fibre, however, the natives unfortunately use mud, 
which clogs it and renders it difficult to spin, and spoils the colour, as 
is evident from the sample sent. Mr. William Rownee, superintendent 
to Capt. A. Thompson (whose report on the quality, &c., of this fibre 
is quoted by Dr. Campbell), observes, that, if potash were used in the 
preparation, which is invariably done with Russian hemp and flax, 
instead of mud or clay, the colour would be improved, the substance 
rendered easy to dress, and it would not undergo so much waste in 
manufacturing, 
Now, since we can assure these gentlemen that the plant yielding this 
fibre is a Boehmeria (Urtica of E. so closely allied in botanical 
characters to the “ Chinese Grass” as to be identical with it, there can 
be no doubt, that if it underwent the same process of preparation and 
fabrieation as is employed by the very ingenious artificers of the Celes- 
tial Empire, the quality would be the same, and it might be made to 
