308 MUDAR, OR YERCUM FIBRE. 
or sown, would require no further care; and where thickly 
planted, might be made the means of reclaiming poor soils, as 
the leaves and some of the upper branches rot, while the root 
and stem remain. Col. Tremenheere, of the Engineers, has 
suggested that the Mudar should be used as a hedge to protect 
desert land brought under cultivation from the encroachment of 
drift sand. This would give a healthful impetus to the culti- 
vation of the plant itself, 
We have not entered on these details, in a work on Fibres, 
on account of the medicinal qualities, or of the down, or of the 
milky juice of this plant, but because it is one yielding a very ex- 
cellent fibre. Of this, some beautiful specimens were sent to the 
Exhibition of 1851, by Dr. Wight, who made experiments upon 
its great strength. The late Dr. Stocks enumerated it in a 
list sent some years since to the Author, among the cordage 
plants of Sindh ; and Capt. G. J. Hollings, Deputy-Commissioner 
of Leia, in the Punjab, has published an account of this fibre 
being used for fishing nets, and as cordage, at Dehra Ghazee 
Khan, on the Indus. The species, however, is not the same 
in all these places. Calotropis gigantea is that common in 
the Southern, and C. Hamiltonit in the Northern parts 
of India, and C. procera in Persia; the last extends even to 
Syria. 
The mode of separation of the fibre is tedious, and may for 
the present oppose some obstacles to the ready supply of 
this material. Capt. Hollings states that the sticks of the 
Mudar were cut about twelve or eighteen inches in length; 
the outer bark was then carefully peeled off, and the fibre 
picked from the inner part of it. Several threads were then 
placed side by side, and twisted into a twine by rubbing them 
between the hands. No water is used (indeed is injurious) ; 
everything is done by manipulation. In a subsequent paper, 
Capt. Hollings observes, that the best plan is to select the 
straightest branches, which are always the largest; to let them 
dry for at least twenty-four hours, before any attempt is made 
to separate the fibre. On the second or third day the sticks 
are slightly beaten, especially at the joints, which ensures 
the bark, with the fibre attached, being peeled off without 
breaking. The workmen then bite through the bark, about the 
centre of its length; they then hold the tissue of threads in 
