DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 209 



JfKankhura (Beng.). See Boehmeria nivea. 



I'lapa (Pacif. Is.). See Broussonetia papyrifera. 



Kapas and Kaipas (Ind., Java, etc.) = Cotton. See Gossypium. 



Kapok and Kapok floss tree (Java). See Eriodendron anfractuosum. 



Karatas plumieri. 



Syn. Nidularium (Bromelia) karatas. 

 Endogen. Bromeliaceo?. Aloe-like leaf cluster. 



Common names. — Mexican fiber, silk grass, and silk grass of Honduras (also given 

 to other species), wild pineapple. 



Common throughout tropical America, though has not been detected in Trinidad. 

 Leaves 8 to 10 feet long, armed with recurved teeth or spines. Abundant in Jamaica, 

 but the fiber used sparingly. This is one of the three or four species of Bromelia, 

 the fiber of which has doubtless been confused with that of Bromelia sijlvestris in 

 collections made twenty-five or thirty years ago. This may be the species that J. 

 McLeod Murphy sent to this Department in 1869, under the name Bromelia sylvestris 

 (which see), as his economic descriptions in part may apply to the Karatas. 



Botanical description. — K. plumieri>E. Morren in Belg. Hort., 1872, 131; Antoine 

 Brom. 35, t. 21-22 (M.D.). Bromelia karatas Linn. (Plum. Amer. Gen., t. 33); Jacq. 

 Amer. Pict., t. 260, fig. 24; Hort. Yind. i, t. 32-33, III, t. 74. Nidularium karatas 



Lemaire. Acaulescent. Leaves 30 to 40 in a dense rosette, rigid, spreading, 



ensiform, 4 to 8 feet long, 1-J- to 2 inches broad low down, narrowed gradually to the 

 tip, green and glabrous on the face, persistently white-lepidote and finely lineate on 

 the back, armed with large pungent hooked marginal prickles. Flowers about 50 

 in a dense sessile central capitulum, at first 3 to 4 inches finally 6 to 8 inches diameter, 

 surrounded by reduced ensiform inner leaves tinged with red; flower- bracts scariose, 

 oblauceolate, 2\ to 3 inches long. Ovary cylindrical-trigonous, L} inches long, 

 clothed, like the bracts and sepals, with loose brown tomentum; sepals linear, per- 

 manently erect, an inch long. Petals reddish, glabrous, exserted one-fourth to one- 

 third inch beyond the tip of the sepals, united in a tube toward the base. Fruit 3 

 to 4 inches long, 1 inch diameter, pale yellow, with an eatable white pulp, tapering 

 from the middle to both ends. Seeds globose, dull brown, vertically compressed, 

 one-sixth inch diameter. 



Structural Fiber. — Dr. Morris says of this species: "A well-known and valuable 

 fiber plant, said to be used by the Indians in making the finest hammocks in Central 

 America, Guiana, and Brazil." In the young leaves the fiber is said to be fine and 

 white, though growing coarser with increasing maturity. 



Locally the fiber is used for bowstrings, nets, fishing lines, ropes, mats, sacking, 

 and clothing. After being passed over the comb or hackles of a flax mill it has been 

 pronounced greatly superior to Kussian flax and equal to the best Belgian for appli- 

 cation to the finest textile fabrics. Fiber which was useless for spinning or rope- 

 making would probably yield very superior paper stock. The plants are of a most 

 prolific nature, growing spontaneously in almost all kinds of soil and climate. Cul- 

 tivation in its native land is therefore extremely simple, and it is surprising that the 

 plant has not recieved more attention from planters in America and our colonies. The 

 Indians cultivate the plant to some extent in Mexico, 1,221 gardens being recorded 

 in 1830. They generally select forest for this purpose, removing the undergrowth by 

 cutting and burning. The roots of old plants are then set out at 5 to 6 feet apart, 

 and at the end of a year yield leaves fit for cutting. The leaves vary in size from 

 6 to 8 feet long and from \\ to 4 inches wide, and are thin in proportion. In a wild 

 state the leaves are edged with thorns, but these are diminished in size and number 

 by cultivation. The fiber contained in the leaves varies in quality, according to age; 

 in young leaves the fiber is fine and white; with increasing age it becomes longer and 

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