FIBROUS SPECIES OF HIBISCUS. 261 
ner, which yielded thirty-three pounds weight of the naturally 
very clean fibres.” Dr. Roxburgh’s original specimens, still 
in the India House, are 9 and 10 feet in length, a fibrous 
mass, apparently easily stript off, and composed of fine and 
easily divisible fibres. (For strength, v. pp. 268-9.) 
H. tiliaceus is the Bola of the Bengalese, common also on 
the Malabar coast, and supposed not to differ from H. arboreus, 
the Maho tree and Mohaut of the West Indies. These grow 
abundantly both in the West and East Indies. 
Forster states, that the bark of this species is sucked in 
times of scarcity, when the bread-fruit fails. The mucilage 
with which all these plants abound, will no doubt afford some 
nourishment. The fibres of its inner bark are employed for cord- 
age by the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, and by the 
American Indians: it is said to gain in strength when tarred. 
The Otaheitans make fine matting from it, and likewise 
manufacture it into ropes and cords. Voyagers relate that 
these filaments are adapted to any kind of cordage, even for 
the rigging of vessels, but rope thus made is not nearly so 
strong as that prepared from Hemp. The whips with which 
the negroes in the West Indies used to be punished, are said to 
have been made with the bark of this species. (v. p. 269.) 
H. furcatus, a native of the interior of Bengal, growing to 
a height of from 6 to 8 feet. he bark yields abundance of 
strong white flaxen fibres, but the prickliness of the plant 
renders it very troublesome to handle. ‘The stems were cut 
when in flower, and steeped immediately. (v. p. 268.) 
H. mutabilis, a native of China, but common in gardens 
in India, and remarkable for the change in the colour of its 
flowers during the day. The fibres of the bark were found to 
be of a hard nature, and of a bad colour. (v. p. 269.) 
H. collinus (eriocarpus of D.C.), a native of the mountainous 
parts of the Circars, where it is called kanda-gang, and where 
the natives use the bark as a substitute for Hemp. Under 
the head of this plant, Dr. Roxburgh states that he has 
often observed that most of the Indian plants of this family 
might be employed for the same purposes as Hemp, as the bark 
is tough, and may almost always be stripped off in long slips. 
H. ficifolius is a species which Dr. Roxburgh so named, and 
of which he received the seeds from the Moluccas. It was an 
