NEW ZEALAND HEMP 187 



are not sufficiently abundant in any one locality to 

 warrant the introduction of machines. Facilities 

 have been offered by the Government for the estab- 

 lishment of plantations, but these have not been 

 taken advantage of to any great extent. Samples 

 of fibre of S. guineensis from Sierra Leone and from 

 the Gold Coast have been examined at the Imperial 

 Institute, and found to be of excellent quality and 

 suitable for use with the finest Manila hemp. Speci- 

 mens of the fibre have also been received at the 

 Imperial Institute from Southern Nigeria under the 

 name of " Ojakoko " fibre. 



S. Roxburghiana has long been grown in India and 

 the fibre, known as " Murva " fibre, is used by the 

 natives for making ropes, mats and coarse cloth. The 

 leaves are from 3 to 4 feet long. 



S. zeylanica, another Indian species, which is cultiv- 

 ated in Ceylon, bears leaves which are only about 

 2 feet long and are therefore of less value for fibre. 



NEW ZEALAND HEMP 



The fibre known as New Zealand hemp or New 

 Zealand flax is obtained from the leaves of Phormium 

 tenax, a member of the natural order Liliaceae. It was 

 first introduced to the notice of Europeans by Captain 

 Cook, who states (A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 1785, 

 vol., i., p. 149) that there is a plant " which deserves 

 particular notice here, as the natives make their gar- 

 ments of it, and it produces a fine, silky flax, superior 

 in appearance to anything we have, and probably at 

 least as strong. It grows everywhere near the sea, 

 and in some places a considerable way up the hills, 

 in bunches or tufts, with sedge-like leaves, bearing on 

 a long stalk yellowish flowers, which are succeeded 

 by a long, roundish pod, filled with very thin, shining, 

 black seeds." 



The plant exists in several varieties. The long 

 sword-shaped leaves grow in opposite rows and clasp 

 one another at the base; each leaf is folded in two 

 longitudinally, the outer surface being shiny and the 

 inner surface dull. The leaves of some varieties are 



