Vegetable Materials for Cordage, &. 37 
been in the practice of making ropes and plough lines of the H. 
palustris, the growth of their marshy districts. | 
‘1. The Sida abutilon, treated as hemp, yields a fibre, from which 
very excellent ropes are made. It abounds in the United States, 
particularly in Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
8. Phormium tenax ; New Zealand Flax. We owe the knowl- 
edge of this valuable plant to the first voyage of Capt. Cook. All the 
attempts to cultivate it in Europe,and the U. States, in the open air, have 
failed. Cables and ropes formed of it, are said to be not only much 
lighter, but far stronger than those made from hemp, (Cannabis,) viz. 
in the proportions of 23,%; to 16}. The missionaries might render 
an essential service to the objects of their spiritual care in the New 
Zealand group of islands, by urging them to cultivate extensively 
this valuable production of their soil. ‘The growth, preparation of 
€ raw material, and its exportation might be made greatly auxiliary 
to their civilization, by inducing habits of regular industry, and by 
farnishing them with the means of procuring every article of cloth- 
ing, and for aac use, books, and the various things connected 
with the arts o ‘civil life, all of which moreover, have hitherto been 
supplied at the expense of the friends to missions in Europe, and 
the United States, 
Philadelphia, December, 1829. 
ror T send herewith specimens of the fibres of Z 
1. Crotolaria Juncea, sun-plant of India, the material of Calcutta 
twine, : ae 
> Musa tevtilis, Manilla hemp. 
3. Coir fibre, from the inside of the coco-nut husk. 
4. Agave Americana, from Tampico and Hayti. Sisal hemp. _ 
sine 
Letters on the Sun-Plant of India, referred io in page 3. 
Dear Siry reply to your inquiries, concerning the material of 
which ‘Bunnies, twine, &ec. are manufactured, and which you say 
ites _ Snt in America, to be manufactured from hemp, I observe 
: t hemp, (Cannabis,) is no part of the material used in those goods. 
Dj “Mave written a paper on the state of agriculture in the district of 
; najpur, Which is printed in the volume of the Asiatic Society, 
now in the press, 
of the Plants use 
Volume will not 
d in the manufacture of gunnies, &c.; but as that 
perhaps be published in less than another year, I ean- 
