29 



Quality of fibre that the natural habit of growth of the 



capable of being 



much improved. O a i o t r0 pis is not conducive to fine tall 

 fibre, for the shrubs do not grow sufficiently near to 

 one another. Thus the quality of the fibre is capable 

 of being vastly improved by artificial cultivation.* 



36. Manufacturers of paper appear generally to 

 The fibre of exo- agree (on grounds of economy alone) that 



genous plants 



con- endogenous plants are better calculated to 

 w ' meet the requirements of the paper-trade 



than exogenous plants, the actual fibre yield of the 

 latter being small as compared with that of the for- 

 mer, while the preparation of fibre from exogens is 

 far more tedious and expensive than from endogens. 

 This opinion, though as a rule correct, is hardly ap- 

 plicable to the Calotropis ; and as a set-off against 

 the expenses attending the manipulation and growth 

 of exogens for paper, it must be borne in mind that 

 the Calotropis is a weed that flourishes on land that 

 is absolutely unfitted for the growth or cultivation of 

 any other crop, and, further, that it is independent of 

 rain, or artificial irrigation, and that when once the 

 seed is sown broadcast it requires no further atten- 



* Without entering into the physiological structure of plants, it will 

 sufficiently answer my purpose, and that of those whom this subject may 

 interest, to briefly explain why plants growing at some distance apart will 

 not yield so good a fibre as when they are grown close together. " The 

 fibrous product of plants is only the woody fibre in a younger state, and 

 may be considered as wood in a separated form, while wood may be de- 

 scribed as consisting chiefly of amalgamated fibres. Exposure to light 

 and air is well known to be essential to the formation of good wood, by 

 favouring the proper secretions of the tree, and the thickening of the 

 woody fibres. But this necessarily diminishes their flexibility, and there- 

 fore is not suited to plants which are grown on account of their fibres. 

 Hence to obviate this undue exposure of the plants to light and air, and 

 to favour their shooting upwards, and to prevent the formation of lateral 

 branches, the seeds of l3oth the hemp and the flax plant are sown thick in 

 Europe, and the plants grown closer as the fibre is required to be finer." 

 The Fibrous Plants oj India. By D. Forbes Roy le. Smith, Elder & Co., 

 London, 1855. 



