ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 


No. 69.] SEPTEMBER. [1892. 

CCLX.—CARAGUATA FIBRE. 
(Bromelia argentina, Baker.) 
Under the name of Caraguatá the late Mr. Thomas Routledge 
forwarded to Kew, in 1877, for determination, “the leaves of a ‘plant 
* from the Argentine e Republic e, with the remark, that the * fibre when - 
* abstracted no doubt will make good paper.’ After some tr ouble, we 
* arrived at the conclusion that. the leaves belonged to one of the 
* singular South American species of Er; (dne a which bave before 
: flowering quite a Bromeliaceous habit. " [Kew Report, 1877, p. 37]. 
few years later Mr. Edwin H. Egerton, C.B., iHe "Mens 
Chargé d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres, referred to die a plant 
a report forwarded to the Foreign Office, dated 31st July ges 
follows :—* But by far the best fibre of the country is that of the 
* Caraguatá Ibera, a Bromeliad which is something like the Pine-apple 
* Chaco. It is very long and silky, and has long been y the 
* [ndisns, and € money has already been spent in endeavours to 
* find some cal machine for the economical preparing of this 
* fibre. Iam deed that the desired result bas now at length, after a 
* long series of experiments, been attained by a French machine 
* invented for the purpose which has just been set up not very far 
* from Asuncion, the process being a simple one without previous 
= maceration. — 
«T i am assured, bu t I cannot vouch for the liar, ge "bee is 
* immense superiority in the quality of the Paraguayan fibre over that 
* of the Chaco and Misiones caraguatá." 
U 73078. 1250.--9/92. Wt. 38. a 
