STUDIES IN INDIAN FIBRE PLANTS. 



No. 2. ON SOME NEW VARIETIES OF HIBISCUS CANNABINVS, L. 

 AND HIBISCUS SABDARIFFA, L. 



ALBERT HOWARD, m.a. (Cantab.), a.r.c.s. rLond.), f.l.s. 

 Imperial Economic Botanist, 



AND 



GABRIELLE L. C. HOWARD, m.a. 



Personal Assistant to the Imperial Economic Botanist, Associate and 

 sometime Fellov' of Newnham College, Cambridge. 



I. niBISrus CANNABINrS, L. 

 1 . Introduction. 



Hibiscus catmabinvs, Deccan or ambari hemp, is perhaps the 

 fibre plant in India most widely cultivated for local consumption. 

 It does not appear to be grown to any great extent in other parts 

 of the world.' This crop, owing to its distribution over the whole 

 of India, is known under a very large number of vernacular names, 

 e.g., amhdri, ambadi, pulu, mesta pat, dare kiidntm, pdtsan, slieria, 

 gogu, fundi, sujjddo and sankukra. 



It is usually cultivated as a mixed or border crop except on the 

 East coast of Madras and to some extent in the jute-growing 

 Districts of Bengal where it is grown pure. In Madras- its cultiva- 

 tion is firmly established in the Vizagapatam and Guntur Districts 

 where the area under this crop is about 60,000 acres or six-sevenths 

 of the total acreage in the Presidency. A mill for spinning the fibre 

 and manufacturing it into gunnies has been worked for some years 



1 lindge, De-irnjifiri- Pnfahifiiir '[fiiscfvl Filirc Plaufsof the TrdrW, Washington, 18!I7, p. 192. 



2 Priu-pedhiiis of thr Jinan/ if J,/ili-ii//iiri' in Jii(li,i, I'.IOP, p. .")."., 



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