136 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



disposed to think that the bases of a real trade in the article 

 were in process of formation. 



The plant is a native of China, but is cultivated in India 

 and the Malay Islands. By the Chinese it is known as 

 Tchou-ma, in Assam as Rheea, and in the Malay Islands as 

 Ramie. It has been introduced at different times into most 

 of the British colonies. 



About the year 1860 a substance called Pine Wool was 

 introduced to notice, two factories having been established 

 near Breslau, in Silesia. The process consisted of reducing 

 the pine-leaves to a coarse kind of fibre of a brownish-yellow 

 colour. This was used for stuffing cushions, mattresses, 

 etc., and as a kind of wadding ; more recently it has been 

 made into a yarn, and woven with animal wool, and sold as 

 pine-wool flannel, which is said to have advantages over 

 ordinary flannel, inasmuch as it keeps the body warm 

 without heating, and is very durable. The pine chiefly 

 employed is Pinus Laricio. More recently — namely, within 

 the last two or three years — pine wool has been made in 

 North America from the long leaves of the Turpentine 

 Pine (Pinus australis), and used for making mats and 

 carpets. 



Perhaps no other fibre, whether textile or otherwise, has 

 made such rapid strides as a commercial commodity as Jute. 

 The beginning of the Jute trade is intimately associated 

 with Dundee, and dates back near upon fifty years. It is 

 the inner bark of two or more species of Corchoo-us, of 

 which Gorcliorus capsularis and C. olitorius are the chief. 

 They are annual plants, belonging to the natural order 

 TiliacesB, and are now largely cultivated in India, especially 

 in Bengal, exclusively for the sake of this fibrous bark. 

 This bark was at one time used only to make Gunny bags, 

 in which to export Indian raw sugar; these, after being 

 emptied of their contents in this country, were sold to the 

 Jews, who extracted the remaining sugar by boiling, and 



