BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 91 
compete with their article in the market. Both species are remark- 
able for the pure snowy white down of the under-side of the leaves, 
and for the dense clusters of flowers seated upon the stems. 
OanaL; or Fibre of Sterculia villosa. 
The genus Sterculia belongs to a family (Sterculiacee) which, like 
its near neighbours Malvacee on the one hand, and Tiliacee on the 
other, abounds in tenacious fibre. I mention the ** Oadal” here, though 
not possessing any of it at the Museum, because it finds a place in 
Dr. Campbell's pamphlet above quoted, and because it is now for the 
first time, so far as I know, brought to the notice of Europeans. This, 
however, is never manufactured into cloth ; its use in India is confined 
to ropes, which, when well prepared, are equal in strength to the best 
Coir. The tree is very common in Eastern India, and the rope is 
readily made; for “the bark, or rather all the layers, can be stripped 
off from the bottom to the top of the tree with the greatest facility, and 
Jine pliable ropes may be obtained from the inner layers of the bark, 
whilst the outer yields coarse ropes. The rope is very strong and 
lasting: wet does it little injury. It is the common rope used by all 
elephant-hunters in the jungles.” 
Frere of Sterculia guttata, ROXB. 
From the bark of another species of Sterculia (S. guttata, Roxb.), we 
. may here mention that cloth is made ; and the process is thus described 
in Roxburgh's Flora. “The bark of this tree the Malabars convert 
into a flaxy substance, of which the natives of the lower coasts of 
Wynaad contrive to make a sort of clothing. The tree is felled, the 
branches lopped off, and the trunk cut into pieces of six feet long, a 
perpendicular incision being made in each piece: the bark is opened 
and taken off whole, chopped, washed, and dried in the sun. By 
these means, and without any further process, it becomes fit for the 
purpose of clothing." 
