AMBAREE, OR HIBISCUS FIBRE. 257 
which is known to grow readily and without much care all 
over the Madras territories, have been found to be an excellent 
substitute for tow, now imported from Europe.” As the plant: 
is so universally cultivated over a vast tract of country for 
home consumption, nothing would be easier than to obtain 
a very large supply of its fibres, if they were required for any 
of the ordinary purposes of cordage. The natives would have 
nothing to do but to increase a cultivation to which they are 
already well accustomed in all parts of the country. 
Dr. Buchanan states, as the result of his experience in the 
lower provinces, that it is cultivated everywhere in India, on 
account of its leaves, which are eaten as a vegetable, and for 
its bark, which is most useful for making cordage. The Author 
has seen it in the same way very generally cultivated in the 
North-Western provinces, chiefly for cordage for domestic and 
agricultural purposes. 
Though so generally cultivated, its fibre is hardly if at all 
known as a distinct article of commerce,—the exports of Indian 
fibres from the three Presidencies being entered as Hemp, 
those from Calcutta only being sometimes distinguished as 
Sunn. With regard to its strength, it may be said that, 
speaking generally, the fibres of the species of Hibiscus are 
not so remarkable for strength as for fineness. 
Dr. Roxburgh, in his experiments, found that a line made 
of this fibre, from plants in blossom, broke with 115 lb., but with 
110 ib. when the seeds were ripe; Sunn fibre, under the same 
circumstances, breaking with 180 and 1601b. Soin Dr. Wight’s 
experiments, the fibre of Hibiscus cannabinus, which is some- 
times called the Jute of Madras, broke with 290 lb., when Sunn 
(Crotalaria juncea) broke with 4041b. Both these, like Dr. 
Roxburgh’s specimens, were probably grown in the same 
clinfate. But in the Author’s experiments, Sunn broke with 
150 lb., when Brown Hemp broke with 190 1lb.; but the 
Sunn was from Bengal, and the Brown Hemp from Bombay. 
There is, however, some uncertainty about this, because though 
no fibres can well appear more distinct than these two, yet the 
Author has in his possession fibres of .a Crotalaria which are 
hardly to bedistinguished from HibiscusBrown Hemp. TheSunn 
fibre of Bombay was, even in Dr. Roxburgh’s time, remarkable 
for its dark colour. But some specimens of Amdbaree fibre, 
17 
