DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



67 



Aroosha or Arusha (Ind.). See Callicarpa carta. 

 Arrowroot plant (see Maranta). 

 Artabotrys spp. 



Exogens. Anonacece. 

 Natives of India and Indian Archipelago; shrubs or climbing plants. Savorgnan 

 mentions A. zeylanicus, the fiber of which — the color of iron rust — is used in tackle 

 for marine purposes, and A. suaveolens, the twigs of which are used by the natives 

 of the Malaysian Archipelago for cords. The species is cultivated in greenhouses. 

 A. odoratissimiis is a scandent shrub, cultivated in India and eastern countries. It 

 is not mentioned as a fiber plant by Dr. Watt, but is included in list of fibers, Rept. 

 Flax and Hemp Com., 1863. The fiber is said to be of good length. 



Artemisia moxa. 



Exogen. Composite. Small shrubs. 



The wormwoods are widely distributed over the temperate regions of the two 

 hemispheres. In Texas, New Mexico, and other regions of the "great West" entire 

 tracts are covered by species of Artemisia. A. absinthium is of well-known economic 

 value. 



Fiber. — On the authority of Savorgnan the down or cottony substance produced, 

 as a surface fiber, by A. moxa, is used as an absorbent by Chinese and Japanese phy- 

 sicians. He also mentions A. vulgaris, found in stony places and among the gravelly 

 soil of water courses (presumably in Italy), known as Canapaccia, the bark of which 

 is filamentous and gives a material similar to hemp. A common species of temperate 

 Europe. 



Artificial Silk. 



One of the interesting exhibits in Machinery Hall, at the Paris Exposition of 1889, 

 was that illustrating the process of drawing out the filmy thread of artificial silk 

 and reeling it into skeins of wonderful brilliancy and finish, this 

 process being the invention of Count M. de Chardonnet. The process 

 is intended to produce from pure cellulose, as a starting point, an 

 artificial substance resembling as far as possible in form, appearance, 

 and in adaptability to the uses of manufacture, the animal substance 

 spun from the cocoons of Bombyx mori (or other species) and known 

 as silk. The various kinds of cellulose can be employed to pro- 

 duce the substance out of which the silk is drawn, on condition that 

 they are pure and not liable to alteration by reagents. The inventor 

 in his own experiments has given his attention principally to cotton 

 and the pulp of soft woods sulphureted. 



With these materials there is formed a pure octonitric cellulose, 

 dissolved in the proportion of 6.5 per 100 in a mixiure of 38 parts 

 ether and 42 parts alcohol. This collodion is inclosed in a reservoir 

 of tinned copper where an air pump keeps a pressure of several 

 atmospheres, which is held down by a ramp, upon which are fixed 

 glass tubes terminating in a capillary section A. A second tube, B, 

 envelops each of the first and receives an excess of water by the 

 tubulure C. This water, held by an india-rubber pipe, D, falls again around B. 

 The collodion driven through the orifice A is immediately solidified at the surface 

 in contact with the water, and falls with this water in thread form around B, and 

 there pincers, which move automatically, take up the thread and carry it over the 

 reels, which are turning above. The threads coming from the neighboring jets are 

 united, forming a combined thread like raw silk. Each jet is furnished with a 

 device for regulating the size of the thread. In manufacturing this thread the jets 

 and bobbins are inclosed in a glass case to prevent the loss of the dissolvent, and in 



Fig. 23. —Device 

 for the manu- 

 facture of ar- 

 tificial silk. 



