8 TEXTILE FIBRES. 



great facility. Then I had some large aloe leaves, some of the leaves 

 being as thick as my arm. Here, again, is a specimen of New Zealand 

 flax which was prepared by the machine, and here is one for which I 

 am indebted to Mr. Christie, and which, I believe, has come from Africa. , 

 The surprising thing is the ease with which the machine operates upon 

 all stems, leaves and stalks," etc. 



A decade and a half has passed away since Dr. Forbes Watson made 

 the above remarks ; he was certainly an enthusiast, and always used his 

 influence in the encouragement and promotion of new fibre industries. 

 He prepared some important reports on fibres for the Government, and 

 he superintended the machinery and material in the cotton ginning ex- 

 periments at an Ancoats mill in Manchester in the seventies for the 

 famous Lancashire spinners, who were anxious to see the cotton gins 

 engaged in the work of separating the fibres from the seeds of cotton 

 actually carried out. 



As a result of this competition many of the third arid second rate gins 

 were superseded, and a number of good machines were concentrated in 

 such a way that the towns of Oldham and of Boltori became celebrated 

 for the good make of cotton gins, and to this day they have kept up 

 their good reputation for Macarthy and Knife Roller gins. 



It is sufficient to say that Dr. F. Watson's ideas were hardly realised 

 by the trade, and at the beginning of the twentieth century we have 

 not made much further headway, and there is still room for other trials 

 to be made. 



Broom, Spanish (Spartium scoparium, Leguminosae). The Broom 

 plant fibres have been used for cordage purposes ; according to London, 

 some of the earliest ropes were made from the fibres of Spartium. 



The plant grows profusely in dry hilly situations, and on railway 

 banks, where it is conspicuous for its yellow butterfly-shaped flowers. 



The fibres have also been used for paper-making, but not so success- 

 fully as to warrant a strong demand for them. 



The Broom plant belongs to the natural order Leguminosce. Linnams 

 was a great admirer of its beautiful flowers. 



Buaze Fibre (Securidacea longipedunculata, Polygalaceae). The 

 plant producing this fibre is a native of Upper and Lower Guinea, 

 the basin of the Nile and the Mozambique district. It yields two 

 kinds of fibre, one from the bark, which is of strong texture and 

 used for nets ; the other from the stem between the layers of wood 

 and bark. 



So far back as 1857 Messrs. Pye Brothers of London gave an opinion 

 that the fibres of Buaze were stronger than flax and much finer. Dr. 

 Livingstone mentions that the plant was used in the Maravi country, 



