72 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



■~<;V 



the British line and perhaps beyond. It blossoms in August, and the fiber does not 

 fully develop until nearly or quite ripe, in September." (A. E. Ball.) 



"A. incarnata flourishes in low, moist grounds and by slow running streams, grow- 

 ing annually from a perennial root some 5 to 7 feet high. It grows in clumps or 

 stools, starting as soou as frosts leave, and seems to assert its position successfully 

 with other shrubbery and weeds. In many respects the plant seems to resemble the 



ramie ; the liber is soft and 

 silky until the pi ant is quite 

 mature, and rather difficult 

 of handling by any present 

 known process, but from 

 experiments already made 

 it promises to ' equal the 

 ramie in fineness and value. 

 The plant may be propa- 

 gated by seed, but the root 

 may be divided into from 

 five to ten separate plant 

 hills and produce stalks the 

 same season. It should 

 have an abundance of wa- 

 ter to draw from, although 

 plants 4 feet high have been 

 noticed growing upon up- 

 lands, but unless set thick- 

 ly together the plant is 

 shorter and more bushy." 

 (S. S. Boyce.) (See fig. 25.) 

 Undoubtedly A. incarnate 

 promises better results than 

 any of the indigenous spe- 

 cies of bast fibers in the 

 United States that have 

 been considered. If it will 

 thrive upon waste lands 

 wbere no other crops will 

 grow, it has to that extent 

 an advantage over hemp, 

 consideriug the strength of 

 the fiber as fully equal to 

 hemp. Recent cultural ex- 

 periments under the direc- 

 tion of the Department of 

 Agriculture seem to show 

 that the plant does not 

 the uncultivated state. See 



The Swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata. 



thrive on upland, nor do as well in cultivation as 

 Rept. Fib. Inv. series, U. S. Dept. Ag., No. 6. 



* Specimens. — Mus. U. S. Dept. Ag. ; Field Col. Mus. 



Asclepias verticillata. 



Abounds in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and contiguous territory, and as far 

 eastward as the Mississippi Valley. 



"The fiber is grayish white, very strong, and is used by the Indians of the South- 

 west for sewing together the skins for ' rabbit robes/ and also as a tying material 

 in the construction of their habitations'' (C. W. Irish >. The soil thrown up to form 

 the banks of irrigating ditches is soon covered with this Asclepias. 



