STRENGTH OF RHEEA AND OTHER INDIAN FIBRES. 875 
For the sake of comparison we reprint the experiments made 
with the untwisted selvages of some of the same fibres, and of 
which the specimens were very carefully prepared by George 
Aston, and their strength tried in the office of the Military Stores. 
Petersburgh Clean Hemp. 7 . broke with 160 lb. 
A fibre from Travancore, called Wukka . - 175 
Yercum fibre . . ‘ f 4 190 
Jubbulpore Hemp 3 . 5 4 190 
China grass, from China ‘ ‘ Ps 250 
Rheea fibre or China grass, from nee - i 320 
Wild Rheea, also from Assam 343 
Hemp from Kote Kangra, in the Hikalinvads bore 400 Ib. seithwouit breaking. 
The other tables, in which the strength of various Indian 
fibres is given, as tested by different experimentalists, are to 
be seen, of Pine-apple fibre at p. 41; of Agave, &., p. 49; 
of Moorva, p. 56; of Plantain, p. 88; of different fibres, 
pp. 268, 269; of Sunn, pp. 277, 289; Jubbulpore Hemp and 
Dhunchee fibre, p. 292; of Mudar, p. 810; of Himalayan 
Hemp, p. 331; and of other fibres, p. 332 ; of Rheea and other 
Nettles, pp. 347, 355, 364, 372. 
We have thus carried our investigation of fibre-yielding 
plants from Grasses in the Endogens to Nettles among the 
Exogens. We have found that in following an arrangement 
according to the Botanical affinities of plants, we have obtained 
some important practical results. Inasmuch, as we have seen 
different plants with their products, possessed of the same 
properties, grouped together in the same natural families; and 
have been led to infer how appropriately we may search among 
these very groups, for other fibrous plants in whatever country 
we may be in, though none exceed India in such natural riches. 
We may congratulate our readers that the arrangement has 
brought us to conclude with a family like that of the Nettles, of 
which somany of thespecies are conspicuous for fibrous properties, 
each consisting of numerous individuals widely distributed, and. 
which are easily cultivated. They appear useless only because 
so few take the trouble, or, we should rather say, enjoy the 
pleasure of reading the wide-spread book of Nature. When 
some of the improved methods of separating fibre are success- 
fully applied to such plants as the Rheea and Wild Rheea, 
