PREFACE. vii 
necessary, in order that others might be able to make use 
of the information which is on record, and future experi- 
mentalists advance from points reached by their predecessors, 
instead of repeating as new what has long been known. 
This copiousness of information is due partly to the 
Court of Directors of the East India Company having 
directed the culture of Fibres in India at the beginning of 
this century, as recorded in Wisset ‘On Hemp, &c.,’ and in 
Dr. Roxburgh’s detached papers (v. p. 6); and partly to the 
subject having attracted the attention of many writers in 
the valuable ‘Trans. and Journ. of the Agri-Horticultural 
Society of India.’ The Great Exhibition of 1851 pro- 
duced a fine collection of Indian Fibres. Many. of Dr. 
Roxburgh’s specimens are still in the India House, my 
own collection has afforded others, and the market has 
supplied such as are known in commerce. 
The greatly increased Importation of Fibres from India 
proves the importance of the subject, and indicates, from the 
-rapidity of the rise, how much more is still practicable. In 
successive editions of M‘Culloch’s ‘Commercial Dictionary,’ 
we find the following Imports into Great Britain; but, 
under the head of Hemp from India, are included the 
various Fibres described in this work, with probably no real 
Hemp, though this may be imported from thence. 
Quantities of Hemp imported into the United Kingdom : 
1831. 1847. 1851. 
From Russia ° ‘ ‘ P 506,803 544,844 672,342 
» British Territories in East Indies . 9,472 185,788 590,923 
If any effectual impediments had been interposed to the 
receipt of Hemp and Flax from the ordinary sources, a 
greatly increased supply of Fibres would have been received 
from India, and might be so at any time, if adequate notice 
were given of the expected demand before the seasons of 
cultivation—that is, before June and October. As the 
