266 FIBRE-YIELDING TREES. 
Several of this family abound in mucilage, thus a Guazuma 
is employed in South America in clarifying sugar ; as a Kydia is 
in India. A species of Sterculia yields a tragacanth-like gum 
on the west coast of Africa, as another does in India. Several 
species of this genus are remarkable for the tenacity of the 
fibre of their bark, which is employed for cordage, as 
Myrodia longiflora in Guiana, and Chorisia crispifolia in 
Brazil, Dombeya umbellata in the Isle of Bourbon, and Sterculia 
Ivria in the West Indies. Helicteres Isora may be similarly 
employed in India. 
Sterculia guttata is a tree, a native of Malabar, which 
was first made known by Capt. Dickenson, in the year 1802. 
The bark of the younger parts of the tree abounds with 
very strong, white, flaxen fibres, of which the inhabitants of 
Wynaad manufacture a kind of coarse cloth. It is not usual 
to make use of the bark until the tenth year, when its size 
will be equal to that of most forest trees. The tree is felled, 
the branches lopped off, and the trunk cut into pieces of six 
feet long, a perpendicular incision made in each piece, the bark 
opened, and taken off whole, chopped, washed, and dried in the 
sun. By these means, and without any further process, it is 
fit for the purposes of clothing. 
Sterculia villosa, called Oadal in Assam, is another tree of 
this genus, which is a native of the mountainous countries to 
the eastward of Bengal. Trunk straight. The bark is smooth, 
but fibrous. Bags are made of it. Its fibres are made into 
cords by the natives of the eastern frontier of Bengal, to bind 
wild elephants with. 
Of a coil of Oadal rope, Major Jenkins gave the following 
notice in the year 1847: 
“The Oadal tree is very common, and the rope is made 
most readily; the bark, or rather all the layers, can be 
stripped off from the bottom to the top of the tree with the 
greatest facility, and fine pliable ropes may be made from 
the inner layers of bark, whilst the outer yield coarse ropes. 
The nope is very strong and very lasting—wet doing it little 
injury.” 
Oadhal is a creeper in Kemaon, with fine, strong fibres ; 
and Microlena spectabilis is a tree found at the foot of the 
Himalayas, which yields fibres fit for rope-making. 
