10 TEXTILE FIBRES. 



says : " When worn by the Mataco Indians it is padded before and 

 behind with cotton from the fruit of the 'yachan' (CJwrisia insignis). 

 When the natives roll themselves in water, the fibre swells, and the 

 cuirass becomes arrow-proof." 



Chitrang (Sterculia Wightii, Sterculiacese). Most of the species are 

 natives of India, and one or two are peculiar to China. They are lofty 

 trees with large leaves. 



As fibre-producing plants, only the species S. Wightii seems to have 

 received attention for its bast fibres, which have been used for cordage 

 making. It is the type of the order Sterculiacex. 



Club Rush or Bulrush (Sciijms lacustris, Cyperacese). This rush is 

 known in Lancashire as the chair bottom rush, owing to its having been 

 used for the bottoms of chairs. At one time it constituted a coDsiderable 

 article of trade, and was much used in country districts and towns for 

 making mats. The stalks grow from 2 to 6 or 8 feet high, and have 

 been used by coopers for filling up spaces between the seams of casks, 



for which their spongy 

 ;fj$ nature adapt them. It is 



a maritime plant, and is 

 frequently found in marshes 

 and ditches near the coasts. 

 This plant is not the 

 "Marsh Gladden," as some 

 writers have stated. The 

 "Marsh Gladden" is Iris 

 foetidissima, or roast beef 

 plant, which is confined to 

 Cornwall. 



The great improvements 

 that have taken place in 



making chairs, and the gradual substitution of wood bottom seats in 

 place of rush-bottomed chairs, has done much to lessen the demand that 

 formerly existed for the use of this marine and spongy rush. There 

 is something to be said in favour of the Bulrush bottomed chair; 

 the seat portion was deeply inclined towards the centre on the four 

 sides, which gave an elasticity and ease to the sitter which is cer- 

 tainly wanting in modern wood-bottomed chairs. The name "Bul- 

 rush " is considered by botanists to belong to this plant and not to 

 the "Reed Mace," which is so often sketched by artists in pictorial 

 editions of Scripture. 



Fig. 5 shows the flowering stalk and the compound panicles of the 

 heads of the Bulrush. The long part of the thickened stem is shown 



