334 DICKSON ON THE RHEEA FIBRE 



acquisition to the textile industry of the country, but the 

 Directors of this Chamber are of opinion that private enter- 

 prise, rather than public patronage, should give practical 

 effect to the laudable object which Mr. Dickson has in 

 view/ " 



One would suppose, on reading this from Manchester men, 

 that they never saw a thread of worsted or Flax-yarn, when 

 they say "if rendered capable of being spun," &c. ; and as 

 to their opinion that <* private enterprise, and not public 

 patronage," should aid the patentee, he cannot but think they 

 now come forward with bad grace to apply to the government 

 to do for them what they denied him to expect, as the intro- 

 ducer of new material for spinning purposes, a fact that 

 practical men admit is of national importance. 



The following from Sir W. Hooker will be found 

 highly interesting to those who have doubts as to the supply 

 of fibres : 



" Royal Gardens, Kew, Nov. 28th, 1859. 



" SIR, I could not answer for the green plants producing 

 fibres, being cut and sent from Jamaica in a good state to 

 London. I thought you wanted the fibre abstracted from the 

 plant, and that Mr. Wi'son could manage. What you call 

 rheea fibre Mr. Wilson mentions in his list as Boclimera nivea 

 (its botanical name), at page 336 of the printed paper I sent 

 to you. It is also sometimes called Urtica nivea and Urtica tena- 

 tissima. They are all one and the same plant, which is also 

 called China grass. I have sent out plants of it to Mr. 

 Wilson, and it might be cultivated in Jamaica to any extent.* 



* As Sir W. Hooker tells us that rheea can be grown to any extent in 

 Jamaica, why don't Lancashire and Yorkshire spinners (who have tried these 

 fibres, and have such evidence of their value) call on Sir C. Wood, the Secre- 

 tary of State for India, and show him that it would be for the advantage of this 

 great manufacturing country, if a free grant of land in India be given to a 

 Company of British merchants, with a view to its being planted with rheea 

 fibre. Who can look on the article in its prepared cottonized state, without 



