EUCALYPTUS TREES. 617 
ministrator of the Botanic Garden of Calcutta, in his 
official report (of April of this year), alludes to no less 
than fourteen new fiber-plants, all allied to the Grass- 
- cloth, from Upper India alone. He thoughtfully ob- 
serves: “Itis, however, not the excellence in fiber that 
is necessary to recommend a fibrous plant as economi- 
eally valuable. The principal value of Jute (Corchorus 
olitarius and C. capsularis) is that it can be easily pre- 
pared,’’ as it must always be our endeavor to liberate 
the fiber by mechanical means, but not by chemicals 
or heat, from the adherent other tissues. Mr. Clarke 
mentions as the most promising of these new fibers 
that from Villeburnia integrifolia, a small tree from 
Khasia, which, with some of the other recommended 
fiber plants, will probably prove hardy here. He re- 
gards the Villeburnia as the strongest of all the Sik- 
kim sorts, it being used there for bow-strings. In its 
whiteness and its fineness of texture it seems to sur- 
pass even Rhea. This fiber can be more easily clean- 
ed than any of the others tried on this occasion, and 
the bush yielding it is thought to grow like Osiers, 
Maoutia puya seems the second-best in value ; it is 
marvellously strong, and provides the Lepchas with 
the principal material for their native cloth. Again, 
from Debregeasia velutina many of the Assam tribes 
obtain their cloth. 
Of the Jute fiber there were imported from India, 
in one single year, into England no less than 60,000 
tons. The United States of America imported also 
about 50,000 tons in a year, there realizing £60 and 
more per ton, the importation in 1865 having been 
91,549,800 Ibs. Regarding fibers, we can learn here, 
by test culture through the year, during which months 
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