130 



PLANT BIOLOGY 



138. Suggestions for further study of parts of plants used as 

 drugs. Study No. 59. (Optional.) 



Visit a drug store or consult an encyclopedia, e.g. Bailey's " Cyclo- 

 pedia of American Agriculture," Vol. II, " Crops/' and make a list 

 of common drugs obtained from plants. Fill out in your note-book 

 a table like the following: 



139. Uses of plants for clothing. (Quoted from Bailey's 

 " Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," Vol. II, " Crops.") 

 " Fiber-producing plants are second only to food plants in 

 agricultural importance. In continental United States, 

 however, cotton, hemp, and flax are the only fiber plants 

 cultivated commercially; and aside from cotton and hemp, 

 most of the raw fibers used in our industries are imported." 



" The cotton of commerce is the hair or fiber on seeds of plants 

 belonging to the Mallow family. . . . The plants are mostly 

 shrubby, more or less branching, and two to ten feet high. . . . 

 The fruit consists of three- to five-celled ' bolls,' which open at 

 maturity through the middle of the cells, each cell liberating seven 

 to ten seeds covered with long fibers. The fiber is a tubular hair- 

 like cell, T^ to Yfas of an inch in diameter, somewhat flattened 

 and spirally twisted. It is this latter characteristic which gives 

 the cotton its spinning qualities. . . . 



" Picking or gathering cotton in the fields is a heavy item of 

 expense. It must be picked by hand, as no mechanical appliance for 

 harvesting has yet been invented which gives satisfactory results 

 in practical working. The amount of cotton that one person can 

 pick in one day varies from one hundred to five hundred pounds, 



