CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS, 379 
should be connected with Societies interested in the investi- 
gation of such subjects, and publishing Journals where the 
learning, the science, and the practical applications connected 
with each subject should be published. I could almost hope 
that the time is come (or very nearly so) in which knowledge 
of Natural Subjects should be considered a part of General 
Education, and that what is called the study of Geography be 
connected with a general knowledge of the Soils, the Climates, 
the Plants, and the Animals of the different regions of the globe, 
and not be confined, as it often is, to boundaries, to the height 
of mountains, the length of rivers, and to a bare enumeration of 
places. Some of the improved views now entertained on such 
subjects must be ascribed to the discovery that so many made 
of their own ignorance at the Great Exhibition of 1851, which 
in this, as in so many points, will continue to be, as it has 
already been, of immense benefit both to producers and con- 
sumers in all parts of the world.” 
Finally, the Author may say, that if there is any truth in 
the information which he has brought together, or in the 
inferences which he has drawn, there need be no want of, but 
an abundant supply of cheap and effective materials for Paper- 
making, and our textile manufactures from the vegetable 
kingdom need not be confined to Flax and to Cotton. While 
with regard to cordage, neither our Royal nor our Mercantile 
Marine need restrict themselves to European sources of supply. 
So if, for fishing nets, track-ropes, and mine-ropes, we re- 
quire the utmost degree of strength in the smallest amount 
of space, the requisites are to be found in some of these Oriental 
fibres, as, for example, in the Rheeas of Assam, the Rami of the 
Malays, or the Chi Ma of China. These produce fibres of 
different degrees of fineness, according as they are taken from 
the later or the earlier crops; so, while the one may rival the 
softest Flax in fineness, the other may exceed the Russian, or 
any other except Himalayan Hemp, in strength. 
