«xist on Puget Sound. Of American species, the Swamp Rose 

 Mallow is perhaps the best known to the botanists under the 

 name of "Hibiscus Moscheutos" inhabiting brackish marshes 

 along the coast, extending up rivers far beyond the influence of 

 salt water. The plant grows from four to eight feet in height 

 and flowers late in summer. Experiments with this plant date 

 back many years. Thirty years ago it was a subject to renewed 

 experimentation in New Jersey, and placing its cultivation for 

 fiber within the probabilities. In the second report of the bureau 

 of Statistics, labor and industries in New Jersey, 1880, state- 

 ments were made as follows: 



"Recent experiments with Rose Mallow at Camden and New- 

 ark incline us strongly to believe that Jute (Jute here is a mis- 

 nomer) as this section refers to "Hibiscus, the Indian Jute is 

 a Corchorus Clitterious." One very great advantage the Rose Mal- 

 low has over "Abutilon Avicennae with respect to economy of 

 culture, consists in its being perennial. Like Ramie, the plants 

 once established, the annual cutting from the stand would be a 

 perpetual source of profit to the cultivator in case the quality 

 and cost met our present expectations. 



Forty years ago Rose Mallow roots were taken from the 

 place of their natural growth and planted on the uplands on the 

 Delaware river, with a view to utilization of fiber and for many 

 years they held their own tenaciously as when growing in their 

 own native swamps and they may be growing on those uplands 

 today from all that is known to the contrary. Samples of fiber 

 from the New Jersey experiments of thirty yars ago w£re not 

 only considered as good as Indian Jute but as secondary grades 

 of imported hemps. 



THE ROSELLE HEMP PLANT. 



This is the "Jamaica Indian Sorrell" (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) 

 plant, which furnishes the "Rozelle" (or Oiselle hemp of the 

 Madras territory.) In India it is small bush cultivated in many 

 portions of that country, its stems yielding a strong silky fiber 

 by retting the twigs when it flowers. The species grows in south- 

 ern Florida where it is planted in March and comes to maturity 

 in December. 



A superb sample of this fiber was shown in the exhibit in 

 Chicago in 1893, which was accompanied by the stalks some ten 

 feet high as straight and clean as Jute stalks; the fiber is only 

 produced experimentally in that country but it might be used 

 commercially if the samples shown were average ones. 



A FLORIDA SPECIES. 



Another malvaceous plant grows wild all over India and is 

 common in Florida, is "Urena lobata." Dr. Ernest, director of 

 the National Museum, Caracas, Venezuela, describes the fiber 

 as very fine, white in color and a metre in length (36 inches). It is 

 very strong and takes dyes readily. Fiber of Urena lobata was re- 

 ceived from Brazil, exhibition of 1876, where it is extracted 

 readily and makes very strong fiber. 



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