78 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Betula papyracea, Alton and Dryander. 



The " Paper-Birch " of North-America. Generally a larger tree 

 than B. alba, with a fine-grained wood and a tough bark ; the latter 

 much used for portable canoes. Likes a cold situation. Hardy to 

 lat. 63 55' in Norway [Schuebeler]. Wood rather heavy, hard and 

 tough, but adapted only for indoor- work, extensively employed for 

 spools, shoe-lasts, pegs and various turnery. 



Bixa Orellana, 



Tropical America. The Arnatto-plant. This shrub or small tree 

 can be grown to advantage for its pigment as far south as Moreton- 

 Bay and probably even further southward. Lives in the open air 

 at Port Jackson, but does not mature its fruit there [C. Moore]. 

 Succeeds in Jamaica up to 3,000 feet [W. Fawcett]. Culture most 

 easy. Fruits well in Natal [J. M. Wood]. The mercantile product 

 is merely the pulp of the fruit. 



Boehmeria nivea, Gaudichaud.* 



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

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

 fabric, which inappropriately is called grass-cloth. The plant can 

 be raised from seeds, which should be sown on manured or other- 

 wise rich and friable soil, when a crop is obtained in the third year, 

 or it can be multiplied quickly from cuttings. Rich forest-soil 

 seems best adapted for the Ramee, where occasional irrigation can be 

 applied. According to Mr. W. H. Murray, failures of crops are un- 

 known in California ; replanting is not required. Professor Hilgard 

 says, that it is one of the few plants which will prosper on alkaline 

 land. 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 warm 

 season. The plant has been cultivated and distributed by the writer 

 since 1854 in the Botanic Garden of Melbourne, being also here 

 readily propagated from cuttings, the seeds rarely ripening with us. 

 Numerous shoots spring after cutting from the same root. Ordinarily 

 three crops can be obtained a year ; but under irrigation, according to 

 Professor Hilgard, the plant is cut four times annually in California. 

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

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

 providing the strongest fibre ; the latter attains sometimes the length 

 of 6 feet. The produce of an acre has been estimated at two tons of 

 fibre, which is always best obtained from the young shoots. The bark 

 is softened by water or steam, and then the bast is separable into its 

 tender fibres ; but as in the case of many other fibre-plants, both the 

 so-called wet and the dry process can be applied, the latter mode pre- 

 ferable, particularly in a dry clime. Dr. Collyer, of Saharumpore, 

 boils the whole branches with soap-water [a process used here since 



