6 
“ plantain growing at the Government Cinchona Plantations at 5,060 
“ feet have often leaves 20 feet long, the stem is about 8 feet in cir- 
“ cumference at the base, rises to a height of 25 feet and weighs 
“ probably about a quarter of a ton. 
“Specimens of fibre prepared from this plantain are of excellent 
“ quality. Taking a portion of the central stem about 4 feet long an 
“ weighing 73 pounds, clean fibre, weighing 13 ounces, was obtained 
“ by beating and washing by hand. This is at the rate of 1°16 per 
“ cent. on the gross weight 
“This plant might be grown extensively for its fibre, and it should 
“ prove valuable, but of course not equal to M. textilis, which is un- 
“ approachable as a fibre $ 
be mentioned that samples of all the banana and plantain 
fibres noticed above are to be seen ip the Kew Museum, No. 2. 
source we find that about 2,000,000 banana stems, 
purchase the fruit from the negroes should offer a small sum for clean 
and well-dried fibre, and take it in small lots as it comes to hand. The 
merchant might afterwards sort and pack the fibre and put it up in 
tightly compressed bales for shipment. Some such plan as this, suited 
to local circumstances, evidently offers the best means of starting a 
banana-fibre industry in the West Indies. 
fibre from both the cultivated and wild species of Musa. 
A “re nana,” very commonly cultivated as a shade and fruit 
plant, and the supply of which is said to be almost inexhaustible, has 
been brought forward as a possible source of commercial fibre. 
“ long in rather foul water or from the leaves being too old and 
“ discoloured before treatment. The attention of preparers should be 
“ directed to the production of a fibre of the bright natural colour of 
“ the enclosed specimen of Manila hemp, and were quantities of the 
ropes. Of course in the mannfacture o: tarred rope colour 
is of no moment, but the white ‘hemp,’ Manila, Sisal, and New 
“ Zealand are seldom tarred.” 
It is quite possible that, in spite of many years of experimental trial, 
the fibres of the banana and plantain may not assume great commercial 
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