801 
Fisrous PLANTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS. 
Following, as we have done, an arrangement according to 
the natural families of plants, for the express purpose of bring- 
ing together a number of plants which are allied in properties 
as they are in structure, we shall pass rapidly from the Legu- 
minous plants to the Nettles and their allies, because few of 
the plants in the intervening families yield fibres which are as 
yet of commercial importance, though there are some well 
qualified to become so, from their great strength and fineness, 
as well as from the abundance in which they may be procured. 
In the West Indies, cordage is made of the bark of a species 
of Mangrove, which is hence called Rope Mangrove. The 
coasts of the Bay of Bengal and of the Indian islands abound 
in the Mangrove, which is found also at the mouths of the 
Indus. Its bark has been used for tanning purposes, for 
which it is probably more suitable than for cordage. 
Among the Myrtacee, or Myrtle tribe, we have species of 
Eucalyptus, called, by the colonists of Australia, “stringy 
bark,” and “ box-tree,” and remarkable for the stringiness of 
their bark, which is therefore employed for making canvas and 
cordage by the aborigines, as mentioned by Bennett, in his 
‘Wanderings,’ i, p. 169. In India the stringy bark of a tree 
called koombhee (Careya arborea) is employed by the natives 
of the countries along the foot of the Himalayas as a slow 
match for their match-lock guns. Among the fibrous barks 
sent from Assam to the Exhibition of 1851, was one that is 
named Roxburghia in the Catalogues. This is no doubt a 
mistake for some plant called after Dr. Roxburgh, probably 
Poivrea Roxburghii, one of the Combretacee, of which several 
are remarkable for tough wood as well as bark. 
The Cucurbitacee, again, or the Cucumber and Melon tribe, 
which are so extensively cultivated in all tropical countries as 
food for the natives, abound, according to Dr. Hunter, in fibres 
of great length. 
Indeed, many of the plants which are cultivated in fields or 
gardens would yield fibre in considerable quantities, which 
would be useful to the paper-maker, instead of being wasted 
or burnt. Of these we may instance, among the large family 
