258 
Parcel No. 2 contains leaves of the plant from which the so-called 
“hemp” is manufactured. These come from Mun-shio or Wén-ch’ang, 
a district a few days’ journey to the east, which district appears to be 
the only one upon this island where pine-apple “hemp” and the cloth 
from it are manufactured. 
Parcel No. 1 contains the leaves of a pine-apple plant, grown for the 
fruit only, obtained at a village five пог w s. west di t cá 
natives of Mun-shio in my service assert that ‘this s the same as the 
pine-apple of Mun-shio, the fruit of which, though The is en у 
consideration there 
Parcel No. 3 contains imperfect leaves of the pine- -apple plant of the 
Lei-chow peninsula, opposite Hoihow, from which the natives there are 
said to manufacture a “ grass-cloth," which is supposed to be brought 
over here in junks for export hence. 
Parcel No. 5 contains a > of the plant (no whereabouts given) 
- which the Customs here were convinced the local “ grass-cloth ” 
as made: they supposed it Wei the Pa йай; until I proved to them 
that it was not. The Pandanus has a prickly seam down the centre of 
the leaf. 
The leaf of the pine-apple is first scraped with a bamboo knife ; it 
is then torn apart, and washed in cold water in which rice has been 
a 
rice-gruel, drawn through bamboo tubes, and cleaned of its knots, 
joinings, and protuberances. 
Parcels Nos. 54, 6, а 8, 9, эт 10 represent the pure pine-apple 
fibre in its various stages. Nos , 8, 9 appear to be mere qualities 
of No. 5a, each of which is ыра, of becoming No. 10 if sufficient 
labour is given to it. 
Parcel No. 11 contains specimens, with prices, of pure pine-apple 
E до, " presumably corresponding in quality to Nos. 6, 7, 8, 
Parcel No. 12 contains a mixed web of ordinary cotton and pine- 
apple fibre interwoven. 
Parcel No. 13 contains specimens of hemp and hemped cloth from 
Mun-shio by way of contrast. 
(Signed) E. Н. PARKER, 
Kiungchow, December 22, 1891. C was 
Roxar GARDENS, Kew, to FOREIGN OFFICE. 
5 Royal Gardens, Kew, November 26, 1891. 
I лм desired by Mr. Thiselton е ч! cette = the receipt 
of your letter of the 4th instant fo 
y Mr. Parker, Her Maiesty's Consul at Теме; on the subject of 
pine-apple fibre prepared at the above-mentioned place. 
The parcel of specimens alluded to in Mr. Parker’s memorandum 
having arrived at Kew, it has been carefully examined in accordance 
with the ok gr furnished in this and the previous correspondence. 
ds be no doubt that the leaves sent by Mr. Parker are those 
of the pineapple plant (Ananas sativus, Baker), and the fibre corre- 
sponds with that usually yielded by members of the pine-apple family. 
