44 
[ Enclosure. } 
M cOwan says :—“ It is a pity that an bre ieee name has been 
manufactured for this Mashonaland tree. The native name would have 
some sense and value as part of the history of the species. 
“The Tra nsvaal Boers call Afzelia cuanzensis, Welw., by the name of 
‘t Mahogoni fies ' (boom is Dutch for tree), But it is utterly different 
from this, its seed being ovoid, black, and each seated in a cup-shaped 
scarlet arillus. These s seeđs are often brought down as curiosities. 
“ I should rather expect this seed to be some species of Bauhinia, if 
a guess must be made. The e packet might be sent to Kew, and a few 
tried a and at Durban.” 
XVII.—_KENDIR FIBRE. 
(Apocynum venetum, Linn.) 
[K. B., 1898, pp. 181-183.] 
In November, 1896, a letter was received from the Foreign Office, 
o a Re j 
1896, containing a reference to a fibre plant auocessially used in the 
manufacture of Russian paper money. With the report a packet of the 
seed of the plant was received. 
The following particulars were ae (Foreign Office Reports, 
1896, Miscellaneous Series, No. 409, pp. 16-17) :— 
« Attention was especially drawn to a plant Apocynum baat 
which grows wild in the Semiraychinsky district, near the River Amu 
Daria, and the Ili. The local name is “Kendir, or ‘ Turka, i ina it 
is much employed by the natives, who use the fibre for their ropes and 
fishing nets. Its chief properties seem to be the very A ES at of 
the fibre, and the fact that it grows without irrigation. Specimens 
oe been shown at various Russian ae gee but the Government 
only took serious s sa to procure any large quantities in 1894, and in 
the following year it was used successfully in the fpa of 
Russian paper m 
“ With the seed brought back in 1894, sowings were made in various 
parts of Russia, and these gave good results at Poltava, where the 
plants grew to a height of j feet in two years. In a wild state it 
ri iven sufficiently low to benefit by the spring floods. I enclose a small 
sample of seed, and some flax from the autumn crop; that gathered in 
the spring is of a lighter shade.” 
The seed sown at Kew germinated this summer and yielded four 
plants. From these it was possible to identify the species as Apocynum 
venetum, L., of which A. sibiricum is a synonym. (See Journal 
Linnean Society, xxvi., p. 
n the Flora of British India, iii, p. 657, Apoc, ynum venetum, L., 
is Rated as an undershrub with slender cylindrical stems and 
branch Leaves 2-3 inches a by 4—} inch broad, linear oblong or 
oblong lanceolate, entire or tapped ; nerves very slender; petiole 
very short. Flowers in small, erect, sub-corymbose cymes; bracts 
subulate, 4 inch diameter, paoia puberulous. Fruit consisting of 
two long, die follicles. The plant is distributed from Southern 
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