ARRANGEMENT OF FIBROUS PLANTS. 27 
practice of tanning ropes is also efficacious, and has the advan- 
tage of not injuring the texture of the fibre, as will be men- 
tioned when noticing Dr. Roxburgh’s experiments. 
ARRANGEMENT OF FIBROUS PLANTS. 
In treating of the different Indian fibres, it is desirable to 
adopt some methodical, instead of an accidental arrangement. 
For such, as for instance, the alphabetical, would necessarily 
be irregular, when the selection of the names must be made 
from a variety of languages, according to the places where a 
fibre or the plant yielding it is best known. Preference will of 
course always be given to any name known in commerce. But 
some of the articles to be treated of are unknown in the mar- 
kets of Europe, and a few, though common in every part of India, 
are yet not known there by any common name. A selection 
must, therefore, be made of one of the names, as this is essential 
for distinguishing the articles one from another, and to assist 
in fixing the attention upon each individually. Thus we shall 
avoid calling every new fibre, hemp, when one only can pro- 
perly be so named. In the same way, the South Sea Islanders 
called every new animal they saw, a pig, because that was the 
only one with which they were acquainted. 
Without entering into minute details, we shall adopt an 
arrangement founded upon the botanical affinities of plants, 
not purely because it is scientific, and therefore more satisfac- 
tory; but because it will enable us to make a number of com- 
parisons with fibres obtained from plants of the same family in 
other parts of the world. It will also enable us to draw some 
practical deductions from the information we may thus bring 
together. Though I have no doubt that some who consider 
themselves eminently practical, will sneer at the idea of a 
scientific arrangement being productive of such results. 
Botanists have for some time arranged all plants into a few 
large divisions, from characters derived from their internal 
structure: thus, some being composed of cells only, are called 
Cellular; others are called Vascular, because, in addition to 
cells, they also contain vessels usually accompanied by woody 
tissue. The cellular tissue being developed in every direction, 
is sometimes called the horizontal system, while the vascular 
