Vegetable Materials for Cordage, fyc. 37 



been in the practice of making ropes and plough lines of the H. 

 palustris^ the growth of their marshy districts. 



7. 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 23j-\ to 16i. 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 

 the raw material, and its exportation might be made greatly auxiliary 

 to their civilization, by inducing habits of regular industry, and by 

 furnishing them with the means of procuring every article of cloth- 

 ing, and for domestic use, books, and the various things connected 

 with the arts of 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. 



P. S. I send herewith specimens of the fibres of 



1. Crotolaria juncea, sun-plant of India, the material of Calcutta 

 twine. 



2. Musa textilis, Manilla hemp. 



3. Coir fibre, from the inside of the coco-nut husk. 



4. Agave Americana, from Tampico and Hayti. Sisal hemp. 



Letters on the Sun-Plant of India, referred to in page 35. 



Pear Sir — In reply to your inquii-ies, concerning the material of 

 which gunnies, twine, &c. are manufactured, and which you say 

 are thought in America, to be manufactured from hemp, I observe 

 that hemp, {Cannabis,) is no part of the material used in those goods, 



I have written a paper on the state of agriculture in the district of 

 Dinajpur, which is printed in the volume of the Asiatic Society, 

 now in the press, and in it, I have taken some notice of the cultivation 

 of the plants used in the manufacture of gunnies, &c. ; but as that 

 volume Avill not perhaps be published in less than another year, I can- 



