CHAPTER XI 



FIBER PLANTS 



120. General statement. While fiber plants cannot be 

 included among those of common cultivation, they cannot 

 be excluded from any account of important plants culti- 

 vated by man. Moreover, some of them are of such great 

 importance that every student of plants in cultivation should 

 know something about them. There are hundreds of plants 

 whose fibers might be used, but thirty or forty species at 

 present supply the plant fibers of commerce. 



The most conspicuous are cotton and flax, the latter being 

 used in the manufacture of linen. After these come the 

 various hemps used for ropes, 

 and the fibers used for matting. 

 A brief account will be given of 

 the origin and production of 

 these most important fibers, and 

 it will be easy to secure speci- 

 mens of the " raw " fibers, 

 showing how they appear when 

 connected with their plants. 



121. Cotton. The cotton 

 plant is said to be grown over a 

 greater area, by a greater num- 

 ber of people, and is useful for 

 more purposes than any other 

 fiber plant. Not only is its fiber 

 exceedingly important, but its 



seeds yield important products, among which 

 oil" is coming to be generally known. 



411 



FIG. 76. Branch of cotton plant, 

 showing foliage and flowers. After 



W088IDLO. 



cotton-seed 



