MOORVA CULTIVATED BY DR. ROXBURGH. 53 
Dr. Buchanan found apparently the same plant, but which he 
calls Aletris nervosa, employed for making cordage near Ban- 
galore. Before the leaves are beaten to separate the fibres, 
they are steeped in water fifteen (others say five) days, in 
order to rot the useless parts; but with Dr. Roxburgh the 
fibres became discoloured by this process. 
Dr. Roxburgh sent drawings of the plant and specimens of 
the fibre (v. ‘Obs.,’ p. 18) as early as the year 1790 to the 
Court of Directors, and again in 1800 by Mr. Bebb; after 
he had cultivated a begah (i. e., third of an acre of ground) 
with this plant. As full-grown leaves of three to three and 
a half feet long yielded about one pound of the clean fibre 
for every forty pounds of the fresh leaves, Dr. Roxburgh con- 
cluded that this plant might be cultivated with advantage. By 
another calculation he found that one acre would yield 1613 
pounds of clean fibre at a gathering, two of which may be 
reckoned on yearly, in a good soil and a favorable season, 
after the plants are of a proper age. He also ascertained that 
aline four feet long, made of moorva fibre, bore a weight of 
120 1b., when a cord of the same size, made of Russian 
hemp, bore only 105. The former, moreover, after 116 days’ 
maceration, bore a weight of 30 lb., when the latter was 
completely rotten. 
Dr. Roxburgh further observes: “Should it ever become 
an object of culture, a less expensive and more expeditious 
method of clearing the fibres from the pulpy parts of the leaves, 
than that of the natives above mentioned, must be contrived.” 
This seems to have been since done. For the Rev. J. Garrow, as 
quoted by Mr. Murray, states that, in the year 1831, during his 
residence in Cuttack, in the province of Orissa, he first by mere 
accident discovered that the leaf of the Aloe angustifolia’ of Lin- 
nus, contained a quantity of long white fibres. Perceiving that 
this material possessed great strength, clearness, and tenacity, he 
caused some quantities of the leaf to be beaten out with mallets, 
and the fibres to be withdrawn, and in this way collected about 
three hundredweight of fine grass, the fibres severally running 
about three feet long. On taking this to Calcutta, Mr. Tapley, 
chief officer of the Thalia East Indiaman, then lying off that 
' It is not easy to ascertain what plant is meant, but it is probably only a variety 
of Agave, as uo species of Aloe is known to be indigenous on that coast. 
