THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE PIASSABA* FIBRE OF COMMERCE, AND THE ECONOMIC 

 PRODUCTS OF THE ATTALEA PALMS. 



BY BERTHOLD SEEMANN, PH.D., M.A., F.L.S. 



For some years past, the streets of London, Manchester, Leeds, Bir- 

 mingham, and other large towns, have been, in places at least, kept pecu- 

 liarly neat and clean, by brooms and brushes made of a new material — 

 those of the machines as well as those employed by hand. Strange to say, 

 although the Corporation of Liverpool receives a considerable amount for 

 town-dues, they have not yet applied these useful brushes to their streets. 

 Mr Witworth, of Manchester, was the first to introduce the street-sweeping 

 machines now in use here and on the Continent. If the question be asked, 

 " What is this material ?" the reply often heard is, " Whalebone, I suppose." 

 But no : it is not of animal, but of vegetable origin ; in fact, it is one of the 

 Piassabas (Piacabas) of commerce, the coarse chocolate-coloured fibre of a 

 species of palm (Attalea funifera, Mart.), which now sells at 17?. to 18?. 

 per ton, and comes to us from Bahia, whence 270,071 bundles were shipped 

 in 1856, and 278,417 in 1858. There is besides a second kind of Piassaba, 

 which reaches us from Para, and is much more valuable, now selling at the 

 rate of 37?. to 38Z. per ton. This latter was largely employed for making 

 brushes used in the cloth factories, but those made of kittool fibre are now 

 substituted ; and when dyed black, it is mixed with bristles, and used in 

 the manufacture of cheap clothes-brushes. It is also much used for horse- 

 brushes. But the business doing in Para fibre is at all times limited, not 

 more than four or five per cent, of the whole Piassaba imported, which in 

 some years reaches 150 tons. This finer kind is the produce of Leopoldinia 

 Piassaba, Wallace, a palm only recently become known through the excel- 

 lent description of Mr Spence. (Cont. ' Journ. Linn. Society,' iv., p. 58.) 

 Mr Wallace had previously given a popular description of it, as well as 

 a figure of the tree. But as Mr Wallace had lost the better part of his 

 materials, which would have enabled him to publish a more scientific 

 account and illustration, botanists were led to confound the Piassaba- 

 yielding palm of Para and Bahia, until set right by Archer (Hook., 'Journ. 

 and Kew Misc.,' vol. vii., p. 213), and Spence in the Journal above quoted, 



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* Usually known in commerce as "Piassava." 



VOL. II. P 



