OTHER USES OV BAEK. 159 



known exceptions to this rule. Amongst the Monocotyledons 

 several palms yield fibre. 



In all the dicotyledonons species the bark has only to be strip- 

 ped off in as long ribbons as can be taken off, a certain amount of 

 pounding or beating being necessary to loosen it. In the case of 

 Bauhinia Vahlii, however, owing to the peculiar structure of the 

 stem, the stem has first to be first split up into long thin strips, 

 and then pounded until the bark separates from the numerous 

 enclosed wood-strands. 



Among the woody Monocotyledons, the chief of our fibre-yield- 

 ing species are the cocoanut palm, from which we obtain coir (the 

 fibre surrounding the nut) and the fibre of the leaves and sheath- 

 ing leaf-stalks, and the Caryota wrens, the leaves and sheathing 

 leaf-stalks of which give the strong Kittul fibre, which is made 

 into ropes, brushes, brooms, baskets, &c. The cord-like fibre ob- 

 tained from the interior of the stem of the cocoanut, palmyra, 

 Caryota, and other palms, may also serve important uses.* 



Section IV. — Othee uses of baek. 



Many barks are used for medicinal purposes, owing chiefly to 

 the alkaloids they contain. The most universally used of such 

 barks is that of the various Cinchonas, which, although exotics, 

 are now cultivated on an extensive scale in plantations treated 

 mostly on the coppice system on very short rotations. Some 

 barks are used for special industrial purposes, those containing 

 gelatinous secretions or tannic acid serving, in many cases, for 

 clarifying sugar. The gelatinous matters coagulate with heat, 

 thus separating from the liquid and carrying away with them the 

 minutest impurities, while the tannin, by coagulating the albumi- 

 nous matters present, has the same effect. The bark of the Acacia 

 leucophlaa is used in the distillation of spirits, the tannin causing 

 the albuminous matters to be precipitated. 



Exceptionally, mere temporary huts are sometimes covered 

 with bark, and cheap umbrellas in Upper India are made with the 

 bark of the Bhojpattra. Moreover, the thick corky bark of Pinus 

 longifolia is made into charcoal, which is more highly prized than 

 wood charcoal by blacksmiths in the Western Himalayas. 



* This paragraph should have appealed in a different place. It will do so \n 

 another edition. 



