GRASS-CLOTH 



CALOTROPI8 

 OIOANTEA 



Silk-cotton 

 nil:' ht, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, prove worthy of 



il . onsidiTJition. [G 1 /. Agri. Ledg., 1899, No. 2.] 



/ /oss. The coma of hairs or floss from the seeds constitutes one Floss, 

 of the so-called vegetable silks or silk-cottons. This was chemically silk-cotton, 

 examined by Cross (Agri. Ledg., 1897, No. 17, 365) and found to 

 possess an abnormally high percentage of furfural. It was further be- 



i give evidence of being unsuited for some of the purposes of ummited tor 

 \tile industries. Dunstan, in a report dated November 18, 1904, Certain TextUl - 

 a of Cn/ittro/tis floss as containing a much smaller proportion 

 llulose than cotton. He shows C. i/ it/tin tea Ross to contain 64'3 Cellulose LOW. 



nt. cellulose, and C. procera 69'8 per cent., while under similar 

 >n<litions cotton yields 95 to 96*5 per cent. In practical experiments 

 li:is been found that the staple was too short and too light for existing 

 /liiiu-ry, the latter property allowing it to be blown away. It is, 

 yer, a soft, very white floss, with a beautiful silky gloss, and has 

 repeatedly spun experimentally in Europe, and the textile produced 

 ich admired. Reporting on a sample of the floss submitted to him 

 the Imperial Institute in 1897, Mr. C. E. Collyer observed that some 

 irs previously the floss had been in demand for fancy textile purposes, Fancy Textiles. 

 it that it had dropped out of use owing to the difficulties arising from 

 riation in the quality of the parcels sent and the intermittency of the intermittent 

 jply when requirements arose. He thought that the trade might be Supply ' 

 rived if a moderate but continuous supply could be guaranteed. Good 

 ility floss might realise 4d. to 5d. per Ib. The pods and seeds should 

 removed but the floss left in its natural condition unopened and 

 jloured portions removed. Notwithstanding all this, no progress has 

 en made in the utilisation of the fibre. In India it is largely employed 

 stuffing quilts, its lightness being of great advantage, and in upholstery upholstery, 

 lolds a recognised position, since pillows and cushions stuffed with it 

 said to be very cool and refreshing. It is also to some extent regularly 

 in and made into fishing lines and nets. At the Delhi Durbar Ex- 

 jition, His Highness the Nawab of Bahawalpur showed one or two 

 woven of madar floss, and these were much admired and supposed 

 many to have been made of silk. 0. Latimer (Monog. Carpet-making 

 1907, 9) speaks of the attempt being made in Bahawalpur to grow 

 ak required in carpet-weaving. [Cf. Kew Rept., 1881, 32-3 ; Watt, 

 Art at Delhi, 1903, 433 ; Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. (Winton and 

 rber, transl.), 1907, 70.] 



Early Records of the Floss. Such then is all that can be said of the utilisation 

 this floss at the present day. But there would appear to be little doubt that a 

 centuries ago this fibre was regularly spun and woven into some of the most 

 lutiful textiles for which India was then famed. Human labour was of much 

 i value then than at the present time. Modern advances coupled with the import 

 cheap European goods seem to have destroyed the old industry. It would 



w fairly certain that the madar floss was the " grass," the " cloth of herbes," Grass-cloths, 

 arba," etc., of early European travellers and traders in Bengal, more especially 

 Further that the traffic they allude to gave to the English language the 

 pression " Grass-cloth," which later on became associated with a textile derived 

 China. Thus Caesar Frederike about 1563-7 (Hakl. Voy., ii., 358) speaks of 

 Cloth of herbes," " a kinde of silke which groweth amongst the woodes without 

 any labour of man, and when the bole thereof is growen round as bigge as an 

 orenge, then they take care onely to gather them." Rhea could never have 

 been found as a wild plant in Orissa, and the allusion to the '* bole " or fruit from 

 which the fibre was obtained precludes rhea from consideration altogether. 

 The passage most unquestionably denotes Caiotrovi* yiyaittfa. This view is 



207 



Fishing Lines 

 and Nets. 



Bugs. 



Famed Textiles. 



