142 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



into England. The prica has considerably advanced of late, 

 owing to the diminished supply; and much interest is 

 now being shown in the discovery of similar fibres from 

 other sources. About eight years ago a new kind of Pias- 

 saba was introduced to the British market from Madagascar, 

 and still forms an article of import. The fibres are thinner 

 and much softer than those, of either the Para or Bahia 

 kinds, and consequently not so valuable for brush-making. 

 Though this Madagascar Piassaba is proved to be the 

 produce of a palm, the exact plant has not yet been deter- 

 mined. More recently a thick, whalebone-like fibre has been 

 introduced as Lagos Piassaba, but little is at present known 

 of it. It is apparently the produce of Raphia vinifera. 



Another fibre that has recently taken a prominent 

 position in the brush trade is Kittool, which is found in 

 large quantities around the bases of the leaves of Caryota 

 urens, a well-known Cingalese palm. Kittool fibre has been 

 known in this country for some thirty or forty years, but it 

 is within the last five or six years that it has become a regu- 

 lar commercial article. When first imported, the finer fibres 

 were used for mixing with horsehair for stuffing cushions. 

 As the fibre is imported it is of a dusky-brown colour ; but 

 after it arrives here, it is cleaned, combed, and arranged in 

 long straight fibres, after which it is steeped in linseed oil to 

 make it more pliable ; this also has the efiect of darkening it, 

 and it becomes indeed almost black. It is softer and more 

 pliable than Piassaba, and can consequently be used either 

 alone or mixed with bristles in making soft, long-handled 

 brooms, which are extremely durable, and can be sold at 

 about a third the price of ordinary hair brooms. The use of 

 Kittool fibre is said to be spreading not only in this country 

 but also on the Continent. 



Under the name of Mexican Fibre or Istle a stiff fibre 

 is now imported into the English market, chiefly for making 

 scrubbing and nail brushes. The history of this fibre ia 



