158 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



shell, of a dark brown or purplish color. In the Tropics the natives convert these 

 seeds into snuffboxes, scent bottles, spoon.-, etc., and in the Indian bazaars they are 

 used as weights. (A. Smith.) 



Entelea arborescens. 



Exogen. Tiliaceae. A small tree, 5 to 10 feet. 



Found in New Zealand, where the light wood of the tree is nsed by the natives as 

 floats for their nets. 



Bast Fibek. — "From the cortical liher are made ropes, cords, and fishing nets'' 

 (Savo rgnt in). E. palmata is aNew Holland species, also included in the Manual Hoepli. 



Envira. 



This word, with an aftix. occurs many 

 times in a catalogue of woods exhibited 

 by the State of Amazon, Brazil, at the 

 W. C. E., 1893. Chicago, as a common 

 name for certain trees that yield fiber. 



Exainplesare : dcania, ''furnishes 



a resistant fiber, though little used;" 



preta (or the black envira), "the 



twigs of young plants serve for fishing 

 poles, also has a fiber of resistant qual- 

 ity ;" pixuna and aurucucu, 



the same: taia, or Queimoza, 



••'thick fibrous bark;" de igapo, 



" inner hark holds the best known fiber 

 for cords.'" See Embira. 



Epicampes macroura. 

 Boot. 



Broom 



Endogen. Graminece. A grass, 6 to 



7 feet. (See fig. 52.) 

 Common axd native names. — 

 Broom root, Mexican whisk. I.'ai; 

 de Zacaton (Mex.) ; Chiendent (Ft.). 

 Broom root, or zacaton, is a wild plant 

 which grows in profusion on the high 

 plains included in Huamantla, San An- 

 dres. Chalchicomula. Perote. and San 

 Felipe del Obraza, and other localities 

 of Mexico having a cold climate. It 

 not only was not cultivated, but until 

 its export made it of commercial impor- 

 tance proprietors of plantations were at 

 considerable expense to rid their fields of the weed. In 1884 it was exported exclu- 

 sively from Vera Cruz, and in five years its exportation amounted to 1,763,680 pounds. 

 In 1889 it was stated l>y M. Chas. Bam that a Frenchman \v;is producing zacaton on 

 a plantation upon the slopes of the Popocatapetl and the Yxtaeihuatl. with a pay 

 roll of 500 workmen. 



STRUCTURAL FIBER. — This is the roots of the grass, which "are about 9 inches to 

 a foot long, possessing a wavy character, and about one-sixteenth of an inch in diam- 

 eter." When cleansed they are a pale yellow." The Department "specimens were 

 secured at the Paris Exp. Univ., 1889, the W. C. E., 1893. and at the C. S. I. Exp., 1895, 

 Atlanta, besides commercial samples from II. H. Crocker & Co.. New York City. 



Uses. — It i^ used by the Germans and French to mix with Venetian whisk, derived 

 from the roots of Chrysopoyon yryllus, for the manufacture of dandy brushes, clothes 



Fig. 52 — The Mexican broom root. Epicampes 

 macroura. 



