230 
5 termi Aea "Dipinihe and use of ochro fibre has been revived in 
h the Southern’ United States, where the plant is largely grown 
daring the summer months, and also in ee In the Report of Mr. 
Ramsden on the Trade, Com , and Agriculture of the 
vince of St. m de Cuba for the yonr - 1889 [F. O. Annual Series, 
No. 779) 779), the following information is furnished s be the fibre of 
the okro plant, known in Cuba as the quimbom 
©The fruit of the quimbombo (Hibiscus eiiis is well — 
in the English West Indies under the name of * okra, and is used a 
vegetable, but although Pichardo, i in his * Diccionario de Voces Caka? 
mentions the plant as being ‘applicable to rope making, I am eee 
that it has been used as a fibre, and, therefore, refer to it here. Last 
Bos : 
with some, and sent 400 pounds of the dried fibre to London, where 
they say it was much liked, and found to be worth 407. per ton. Three 
erops are obtained in the ^ and its preparation by maceration gave 
very little trouble; The stem produces a fibre of fiiio% quality, and about 
4 feet in length, and ayhgieiatly strong. Further trials will probably be 
made here. I send a sample of it with this report.” 
The sample of fibre above mentioned has herir — to Kew by 
the Foreign Office, and is now in the Museum of Economie Botany. 
Wi the commercial value of this Cuban Jie; Messrs. Ide 
ia, a of 72, Mark Lane, E.C., to whom it was referred, report as 
- Hibiscu esculentus. The sample shows the fibre to be only 
olour. 3 
possible that the colour eould be greatly improved by more careful 
Hoi and that in that case its value might be increased by 4l. or 
3 
* We cannot i "guid it gee that fibre of this type could have been 
found worth 40/. per t year in London as stated to the Consul 
and mentioned in his s Rae 
CLXXIII.—COCOA-NUT BUTTER. 
(Cocos nucifera, L.) 
A valuable Mae fat peri from the kernel of the cocoa-nut s 
e into commerce tinent under the name of coco 
ulinary purpose 
di S » can be cante as is M tol, from the 
or ru copra" or dried kernel of t ocoa-nut as shipped from 
tropical countries, there would be an date Berras supply of the 
raw material available from various parts of the world 
* ^ ; d 
