50 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



CHAPTER III. 



FILAMENTS APPLICABLE TO SPINNING AND 

 WEAVING. 



SPARTUM ASCLEPIAS HOP-BINE NETTLE BEAN- 

 STALK MALLOW BARK AND SHOOTS OF MULBERRY 

 OTAHEITAN CLOTH. 



MANY productions of the vegetable world contain 

 fibrous matter capable of being converted into useful 

 textures ; but the superiority of flax, cotton, and hemp 

 over these render such substitutes of comparatively 

 little importance. 



The Greeks originally called by the name of 

 spartum, a particular shrub, the pliant branches of 

 which they not only interlaced to form baskets of 

 various kinds, but they also prepared and manufac- 

 tured its fibres into cloth arid cordage. This plant 

 is identified by botanists with the Spartium jun- 

 ceum, or Spanish broom, which grows wild in the 

 Levant and the southern parts of Europe. Pliny*, 

 by whom it is called genista, improperly con- 

 founds it with the Spanish and African spartum, a 

 plant distinct from this, and which will be described 

 in another chapter. M. Broussonet, in 4 Memoires 

 d'Agriculture,' for the year 1785, recommends the 

 cultivation of this plant under the name of Genet 

 d'Espagne, and enumerates the many uses to which 

 it may be applied. 



It springs forth on steep declivities and sterile 

 lands with a rapid growth. Its roots ramify through 

 the interstices of the rocky soil, binding together and 

 * Lib. xxxix. cap. 9. 



