20 



In this climate rooted offsets are more certain to grow than cut- 

 tings, and should be inserted in furrows 5 feet apart and 6 inches- 

 deep ; a foot or 18 inches should be the distance between each 

 plant in the rows. The soil should be well pulverized, drawn 

 over the roots with a hoe, and tightened with the foot. When 

 the shoots have attained, say, 10 or 12 inches in height the rows 

 should be hilled up like potatoes. The object of close planting 

 in the rows is to cause the stalks to run up straight, and prevent 

 branching. When the crop is ready for cutting a brown tinge is 

 noticeable at the base of the stems. The stools or ratoons sprout 

 up thicker every season, and under favorable conditions two or 

 three crops of " canes " several feet high can be cut in a year. 

 After two or three years, if the plants happen to spread too far 

 into the spaces between the rows, it will be necessary to chop out 

 with a spade the advancing stools or suckers ; and these may be 

 used for other plantations. To those who are engaged in silk 

 culture the Kew Bulletin for August, 1890, states that the leaves 

 of the ramie may be used as food for silkworms in the same way 

 as those of the Mulberry and the " Osage Orange " (Madura 

 aurantiaca). 



Several other species of Boehmeria have been recently intro- 

 duced by me from India, and grown in the gardens ; and from' 

 these have been produced some fairly good samples of fibre — 

 notably from Boehmeria macrophylla, which is more robust in 

 habit than the true ramie. Fibres have also been prepared from 

 other members of the Nettle family — the great " stinging-trees " 

 of New South Wales and Queensland — " Laportea (Urtica) 

 gigas," " L. photinifolia," and even the ordinary annual weed 

 nettle. The common wild perennial nettle of Europe (Urtica 

 dioica), so common in Germany, is supposed to yield a fibre little 

 inferior to hemp. Every member of the " Plantain and Banana 

 family " (Scltamineaa) is fibrous. 



SOME ADDITIONAL FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS. 



Musa textilis* yields- the well-known Manilla hemp, so useful 

 for rope making and other purposes. The climate of Victoria, 

 however, is quite unsuitable for its cultivation. Its near relatives- 

 Canna gigantea (" Indian Shot plant ") and Alpinia nutans (or 

 "Indian Shell-flower") — which may be seen in most large 

 gardens around Melbourne — supply fibres of fair strength. That 

 obtained from the stalks of the former somewhat resembles 

 Manilla hemp, whilst the refuse from the roots after the arrow-root 

 has been exti-acted can be converted into strong packing paper. 



* Good samples of fibre of Musa Ensete (Bruce's Banana) and of Musa sapientum (Commou. 

 Banana) -^rcre also exhibited. That of tlie iormer measured over 4 feet in length. Tlie plant 

 grows freely in the Botanical Garoens, where it sometimes attains a height of more than 

 18 feet. Several specimens fruited and produced an abundance of seed last year. Musa. 

 sapientum is not so hardy in Victoria as the former. 



