128 . Select Plants fur Industrial Cult tire and 



a day by four men's work. This apparatus can also be used for 

 other fibre-plants. The seeds of the Corchorus, which drop spon- 

 taneously, will reproduce the crop. 



Corchorus capsularis, Linne.* 



From India to Japan ; also in North- West Australia. One of 

 the principal jute-plants. An annual, attaining a height of about 

 twelve feet, when closely grown, with almost branchless stem. A 

 nearly allied but lower plant, Corchorus Cuniiinghami (P. v. 

 Mueller), occurs in tropical and sub-tropical Eastern Australia. 

 Jute can be grown, where cotton and rice ripen, be it even in locali- 

 ties comparatively cold in the winter, if the summer's Warmth, is 

 long and continuous. The fibre is separated by steeping the full- 

 grown plant in water from five to eight days ; it is largely used for 

 rice, wool-aiid-cotton-bags, carpets and other similar textile fabrics 

 and also for ropes. In 1884 Great Britain imported 5,111,000 cwt. 

 of jute, valued at 3,600,000. In 1883 the quantity amounted even 

 to 7,372,000 cwt., of the value of 4,520,000, and a large quantity 

 is also sent to the United States. Jute is sown on good land, well 

 ploughed and drained, but requires no irrigation, although it likes. 

 humidity. The crop is obtained in the course of four or five months, 

 and is ripe when the flowers are replaced by fruit-capsules. Good 

 paper is made from the refuse of the fibre. Jute has been found, 

 like hemp, to protect cotton from caterpillars, when planted around 

 fields [Hon. T. Watts]. In India jute often alternates with rice 

 and sugar-cane ; as a crop it requires damp soil. It does not require 

 drained land, according to Mr. C. B. Clarke. Unlike cotton, it will 

 bear a slight frost. Under favorable circumstances 2,000 to 7,000' 

 Ibs. may be obtained from an acre, according to quality of soil. It 

 is best grown on temporarily flooded ground, as otherwise it proves 

 an exhaustive crop. Two hundred million pounds of jute were 

 woven in 1876 in Dundee, and fifty million gunny-bags were 

 exported from Britain in one single year, according to S. Water- 

 house. 



Corchorus olitorius, 



South- Asia and North-Australia, Furnishes, with the foregoing 

 species, the principal supply of jute-fibre. As it also is an annual, 

 it can be brought to perfection in the summers of the warm tem- 

 perate zone'. The foliage can be used for spinage. The fibre is not 

 so strong as hemp, but very easily prepared, It will not endure 

 long exposure to water. The seeds will keep for several years. 

 The allied Corchorus trilocularis (Linne), of Indian origin, is like- 

 wise wild in eastern tropical and sub-tropical Australia ; Hs fibre 

 may be used for ropes. 



Cordyline Banksii, J. Hooker. 



New Zealand. This lax- and long-leaved Palm-Lily attains a 

 height of 10 feet ; its stem is usually undivided. This and the 



