282 
ton, Mexican £26 10s. to £27 10s. per ton; in 1915—Indian 
£39, Natal £36 10s., Mexican £37 to £38. 
The figures showing the general imports of this fibre are not 
readily “accessible, being “included under the broad term 
‘‘Hemp’*’. Mexico is the principal source, 824 tons, value 
£24,459, coming from that country to the United Kingdom in 
1913, but large quantities are shipped to the United States ; 
949 tons, value £31,210, were imported into England in 1913. 
British East Africa and the Bahamas are perhaps the most 
successful Colonies in the production of this fibre, but consider- 
able attention is being given to it in India, Jamaica, Natal, 
Uganda, Nyasaland, West Africa, Fiji, &e., ‘and there appears 
to be no reason why the plant should not be grown successfully 
in any Colony possessing a hot climate and dry calcareous soil. 
K.B. Add. Ser. ii. p. 180; 1908, p. 300; 1912, p. 354; 1913, 
p. 231; 1914, p. 350. 
Mauritius Hemp (Furcraea gigantea, Vent.). Leaf fibre. 
Brittsu.—Mauritius and St. Helena. Value 1913—£25 to 
£29 per ton; in 1915 434 to £35 per ton. 
: The plant is under cultivation in India, Ceylon, Nyasaland, 
i q 
K.B. Add. Ser. i. p. 208; 1916, p. 169. 
Manila Hemp (J/usa textilis, Née). Stem fibre. 
Forreren.—Philippines, -Java. 
Manila hemp is the best of the white fibres used for making 
rope, which includes the two hemps above mentioned. 
The plant has been cultivated in British North Borneo, and 
has been introduced from Kew to India, the West African and 
West Indian Colonies, &c. 
K.B. Add. Ser. ii. pp. 95, 106. 
New Zealand Hemp (Phormium tenax, Forst.). Leaf fibre. 
Bririsu.—New Zealand, St. Helena. 21,824 tons, value 
£649,170, imported in 1913; and 14,512 tons, value £397,858, 
in 1915 to this country, from New Zealand 
This plant does not appear, so far, to lake been grown on a 
commercial scale in any other Colony. 
Flax (Linum usitatissimum, L.). Bast fibre. 
Brittso.—Ireland, Canada. Forrren.—Russia, Germany, 
Netherlands, Belgium, France, &c. Imports into the United 
Kingdom from the Foreign Countries enumerated in 1913— 
84,222 tons value £4,178,782, and from British Possessions 1913 
ai48 tons, value £1,347 
t is under expeniitel cultivation in Cyprus, East 
Africa Protectorate, Transvaal, Or range River Colony, India 
(asa fibre plant, but an important source of the seed: see ‘‘ Lin- 
seed’). In British East Africa Protectorate ‘‘ the experiments 
i —ee 
