32 



TEXTILE FIBRES. 



The tree is extensively grown in Russia, where the cultivation and 

 exportation of the bast is an important industry. The bast of the lime 

 has been recommended for the manufacture of paper. 



Fig. 20 shows the bast as taken from a twig of the lime tree. 

 The layers of bast tissue are the finest when situated nearest to the 



Fig. 20. Bast of Lime tree. 



region in which the bast cells are generated. This point of extension is 

 just outside the cambium cylinder. 



In the illustration the first and second rows starting from the left 

 show the coarser bast tissue, from a position on the stem just inside 

 the corky bark. The third and fourth are finer, and may be termed the 

 internal bast, in contradistinction to the outer or peripheral bast and 

 bark. The bast of most plants serves as a strengthening tissue, which 

 is known to botanists as " Sclerenchyma." 



