28 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 





as commercial articles, these having- proved their superior adapta- 

 bility for the special purposes for which they are employed, and the 

 form and appearance of the different manufactures from them having 

 become in a measure so fixed that change could not be made without 

 serious result. And, besides, it should be recognized that such change 

 might necessitate complete change in an entire system of textile machin- 

 ery employed in a special industry. Examples of the fabric fibers of 



the first rank are China grass 

 (bast fiber), pineapple (struc- 

 tural fiber), and cotton (surface 

 fiber) ; of the second rank, jute 

 (bast fiber) and coir or cocoa- 

 nut (structural fiber). The 

 fabric fibers, therefore, are 

 easily disposed of, and we come 

 to the next of the higher uses in 

 which fibers are employed, the 

 manufacture of threads, twines, 

 cords, and ropes, or, reduced 

 to a term, cordage. The 

 fibers employed for this group 

 of manufactures include all the 

 spinning and weaving fibers, 

 which for the most part are 

 employed in the manufacture 

 of thread and fine twines, and 

 a larger number of coarser 

 fibers, which also have their 

 substitutes, for the manufac- 

 ture of which ordinary sys- 

 tems of cordage machinery are 

 generally adapted. In this 

 group, also, must be included a 

 still larger number of " native" 

 libers, or those which are ex- 

 tracted, prepared, and rudely 

 spun or wrought into ropes by 

 hand by the natives of the 

 con n tries where they are pro- 

 duced, the finei- kinds being used tor sewing thread, fish lines, nets, and 

 hammocks. Even the group of '-native libers" used for cordage is 

 capable of subdivision into prepared fibrous material, for spinning and 

 twisting, and unprepared bark, or the whole stems or leaves of plants 

 or bandies of unprepared bast, simply twisted together to form a very 

 rough rope <>r 

 America and in 



Fig. •'■ — Sphagnum moss. 



able. Such cordage has been largely used in South 

 India in the construction of rope bridges. Examples 



