DICKS ON OX THE FIBRES OF INDIA. 313 



and Flax, Neilgherrie nettle, Assam grass and' many other 

 fibres, all of which can be obtained in abundance, as stated 

 in the works published by the authority of the East India 

 Company. 



Dr. Forbes Royle, the late eminent botanist to the East 

 India Company, in his work published in 1855, draws the 

 attention of the public, in the strongest manner, to the various 

 fibres of India as possessing the most valuable commercial 

 character. At page 376, he concludes : " When some of the 

 improved methods of separating fibre are successfully applied 

 to such plants as the rheea and wild rheea, the benefits to 

 India and the world will be incalculable. For they are, 

 exceeded by none in fineness, excell all others in strength, and 

 may be both compared to the trunk of the elephant, which can 

 pick up a needle or root up a tree" 



Of the rheea, says Colonel Vitch (Col. Ind. Rep., 1859, 

 p. 202) : "I believe it stands at the head of all fibres. It has 

 only been used as yet by fishermen for their nets. It is found 

 to be exceedingly strong, and capable of resisting the action 

 of water : it is capable of being produced in great abundance 

 the great obstacle to its extension is on account of the 

 quantity of labour required to remove the fibre from the stalks. 

 It is all stripped off by the nail ; we have not been able to 

 find out any machinery that will separate it from the stalk." 



Of the Himalayan hemp, Dr. Royle's book says: "The 

 hemp grown on our mountains, and in the valleys, is far 

 superior in strength to the samples of Russian hemp which 

 have been sent by the Court of Directors. On showing these 

 to the hill growers of hemp, they declared that were they to 

 produce such an inferior article, it would scarcely find a sale. 

 No Russian hemp will come near it in quality. The 

 essentially good qualities of the hemp grown in the Himalayas 

 consisting in its strength, divisibility, fineness, and softness 

 of the fibres of much of what is grown there, will make it, 



