O he aa ey TSS ys KUMEA 
ad 
119 
The leaves of this species, growing at Kew, were too eres to be 
A tested for fibre 
5. Sansevieria zeylanica, Willd., is a very well known and well- 
marked plan is a native of Ceylon, and, long before Linnæus, was 
figured and isertbea by Royen, Commelinus, and Plukenet. Thereare 
8 or 10`leaves in a tuft and they are semi-circular in transverse section, 
1 or 2 feet long, rounded on the back, deeply channelled down the face, 
3 or $ inch thick in the middle, in colour dull green, copiously banded 
with white, with a distinct red margin. The peduncle and flower PE 
are each about a foot long, the flowers being rather smaller than in 
guineensis, but quite similar in structure. Itis well figured in Redouté’ 
Liliaceæ, tab. 290, and in the Botanical Register, tab. 160, in the pi 
In Ceylon re species is known under the Singhalese name of 
Neyanda. Tt i indigenous in the hotter parts of the island, and the 
: Pre yielded Tey it is used in numerous ways, such as strings, TS 
k 8 
a Reba, Moorga, or Marool. Sir William poe in the Asiatic Re- 
searches,.Vol. IV., p. 271, at nba > zeylanica under its ancient 
Sanscrit name of Moorva, and he that: “ «Fr om the leaves of this 
lle 
“ plant the ancient Hindoos abiaihed a A very tough elastic thread called ` : 
k « Maurvi, of which they made bowstrings ; and which for that reason, 
‘ was ordained by Menu to form the sacrificial sone of the military 
ass 
“class.” Dr. Roxburgh describes the plant as common on the jungly 
salt soils along the coasts, growing under the bushes, and hp propa- 
on almost every soil, from the slips which issue in great abun- 
com Horne wakes the following cay on hoa plant at Mauritius :— 
everal species of Sansevieria are co n here in waste amii near 
s ie sites of old gardens, and by the edt sides. They are not so 
ye < readily nor so cheaply atao on land as the aloës vert. "But they 
“ yield a good fibre, which is used for cordage, &c. It has the reputa- 
“ tion of being one of the strongest of fibres. Itis known by the name 
* of mace | ‘ing hemp and Moorva. 
pint by retting or by simple bea and scraping. Full grown leaves 
yield at the rate of 7-87 per cent. ty weight of the green leaves. Owing 
to the smallness of the individual leaves they are difficult to clean Hy 
machinery, but if it were possible to vans the fibre vad a chemical 
pami this plant pa ERAF of great commercial valu 
Oo 
hoobilt from Ceylon; a b Dr. G. H. K. Thwaites, under the name 
of Neyanda fibre; one labelled Moorga or Bowstring hemp, from 
Jamaica, from Mr. D. Morris, 1884, with the following note attached : ` 
—“ Longest leaves 34 to 4 feet eine narrow, mottled, unarmed, very 
“of the leaf, or seed.” There are also samp m the Botanic 
den, ae sen can; from Mysore, obtained from 
the nia um, besides rope sand twine frora areraria a twine from 
hi d nose 
y Mr. J. A Ferdinandus: 
a qe of paper hal ne ae from Fe shies: gi actin and some fibre 
dyed in two colours (red and blue), from Madras, by Dr. Hunter, 
