CHINA GRASS. 163 



China Grass. — The fibre prepared from Boehmeria 

 nivea: the Snowy Nettle, or Urtica nivea of Willdenow. 

 (Nat. Ord. Urticacece.) (Plate VII fig. 37.) 



The knowledge of the fact that this very superior fibre is 

 derived from the above plant, is one of the invaluable 

 results which have arisen from the establishment of the 

 Museum of Economic Botany at Kew, under the superin- 

 tendence of the eminently practical and scientific botanist 

 Sir William J. Hooker. 



Until very lately the Chinese were the sole possessors of 

 the secret of making their celebrated grass linen j but the 

 plant having been raised in the Royal Gardens, the question 

 was set at rest, and the plant figured, in • Hooker's Journal 

 of Botany,' vol. i. The plant is now cultivated largely in 

 various parts of India, and bids fair to become a most im- 

 portant article of commerce. At present our method of 

 preparing it is not sufficiently perfect, but we are making 

 rapid progress in its improvement, and may hope that grass 

 linen, equal in quality to that of China, will ere long be as 

 cheap and plentiful as that made from the flax. This Boeh- 

 meria is a coarse nettle-like plant, deriving its specific name 

 from the white colour of the under side of the leaves. 



The imports at present have only reached between 300 

 and 400 tons per annum. 



