56 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



shoe-lasts, bowls and trays, and the saplings and branches for hoops. 

 The bark is well adapted for rough roofing. Twigs of the Red Birch 

 furnish one of the best materials for rough brooms. Hardy at 

 Christiania (Schuebeler). 



Betula papyracea, Aiton. 



The " Paper-Birch " of North- America. A larger tree than B. 

 albaj with a fine-grained wood and a tough bark; the latter much 

 used for portable canoes. It likes a cold situation. Hardy to lat. 

 63 55' in Norway (Schuebeler). 



Boeh.rn.eria nivea, Gaudichaud.* 



The " Ramee or Rheea." Southern Asia, as far east as Japan. 

 This bush furnishes the strong and beautiful fibre, woven into fabric, 

 which inappropriately is called grass-cloth. The bark is softened by 

 hot water or steam, and then the bast separable into its tender fibres. 

 The bast is obtained from the young shoots; it is glossy, tough and 

 lasting, combining to some extent the appearance of silk with the 

 strength of flax. The ordinary market-value of the fibre is about 

 40 per ton; but Dr. Royle mentions, that it has realized at times 

 120. The seeds are sown on manured or otherwise rich and friable 

 soil. In the third year, or under very favorable circumstances even 

 earlier, it yields its crops, as many as three annually. The produce 

 of an acre has been estimated at two tons of fibre. This latter, since 

 Kaempfer's time, has been known to be extensively used for ropes 

 and cordage in Japan. Rich forest- valleys seem best adapted for the 

 Ramee, as occasional irrigation can be applied there. In the open 

 lands at Port Phillip it suffers from the night-frosts, although not 

 to such an extent as materially to injure the plant, which sends up 

 fresh shoots, fit for fibre, during the hot season. The plant has been 

 cultivated and distributed since 1854 in the Botanic Garden of 

 Melbourne, where it is readily propagated from cuttings, the seeds 

 rarely ripening there. Cordage of this Boehmeria is three times as 

 strong as that of hemp. Numerous shoots spring after cutting from 

 the same root. Fertile humid soil or rich manuring is necessary for 

 productive returns. Dr. Collyer, of Saharumpore, boils the whole 

 branches with soap-water (a process used here since 1866, for 

 separating the Phormium-fibre) for the easy separation of the fibre, 

 of which he obtained 150 Ibs. from a ton of Rheea-branches ; the cost 

 of separation and final preparation being calculated at 10 per ton 

 (interest on capital for machinery not counted). He also perfected 

 machinery, to render the process easy and more remunerative. Fibre, 

 further prepared by Bonsor's process, can be spun into the finest 

 yarn. Colonel Hannay and Dr. Forbes Watson record, that in Assam 

 four to six crops are cut annually, that obtained in the cool season 

 providing the strongest fibre; the latter is obtainable to the length of 

 6 feet. Other species require to be tested, among them the one, 

 which was discovered in Lord Howe's Island, namely Boehmeria 

 calophleba, Moore and Mueller. 



