GO VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



which renders it much more valuable in use than 

 the others. This is its resistance to water, in which 

 advantage the two first are deficient. This impervi- 

 ousness to moisture renders it the most useful cloth, 

 but it is likewise the most rare ; when ornamented it 

 usually forms the dress of the chiefs. Though the 

 cloths manufactured from the bark of these several 

 trees differ in quality, they undergo the same pro- 

 cess. 



The bark is not merely stripped off the trees, as 

 they grow in wild luxuriance, but they are carefully 

 cultivated for the purpose of producing good and 

 even bark. The lower leaves with their germs are 

 taken off wherever they give any indication of pro- 

 ducing a branch, as it forms the excellence of trees 

 to be thin, straight, tall, and without lower branches. 

 The proper time for using them is when they are 

 about six or eight feet high, and somewhat more 

 than an inch in diameter. The plants are then 

 drawn out of the ground, and stripped of their leaves 

 and branches, after which the roots and tops are cut 

 off, and the bark being slit longitudinally, is readily 

 separated from the stem. It is then placed in running 

 water, and secured in this situation by placing heavy 

 stones upon it. When sufficiently macerated, the 

 inner bark is separated from the green outer rind. 

 In performing this operation the women sit in the 

 water, and placing the bark on a smooth board, scrape 

 it, while yet immersed, with a shell, as the fibres are 

 found to separate more readily when surcharged with 

 moisture, and the useless parts are washed away at 

 the moment of their disengagement. This work is 

 continued until nothing remains but the fine fibres of 

 the inner coat. 



The fibres thus obtained are not, however, spun 

 and woven in the manner of flax. The Otaheitan 

 cloth is produced by so very different a process, that 



