236 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



Bast Fiber. — The Jetei liber of India. The plant is abundant in the Rajmahal 



hills of India in dry and barren places, and the fibers of the bark are employed for 

 making bowstrings by the mountaineers. '' The fibers are not only beautiful in 

 appearance, but strong and durable." In Dr. Roxburgh's tests of twine made from 

 jetee, he found that in the dry and wet states it bore a strain of 248 and 343 pounds, 

 when hemp in the same states bore 158 and 190 pounds. More recent tests, however, 

 place it below hemp in strength, but above it in elasticity. The fiber is much used 

 for making nets, and is not liable to injury by being kept in water. 



Marsh grass, or salt marsh grass. Spartina juncea. 



Fig. 79.— Maranta arundinacea. 



Martynia louisiana. Devil's Horns. 



Syn. Martynia proboscidea. 

 Exogen. Pedal iacea\ Herbaceous shrub. 



Native names. — Testa di Qua glia (It.). An allied species i-^ known in Mexico 

 as Ungulu8 Diaboli. 

 A Mexican plant, but found in the western United States. The species of this 

 genus are natives of tropical America. A starch is obtained from their tubers. 



FIBER, — The pods of Martynia louisiana at maturity shed their fragile outer coat, 

 leaving an inner part of an exceedingly tougn, fibrous nature, black on the outside, 

 and with two slender, divergent hooked horns, commonly 4 to 5 iuches. or rarely 12 

 inches, in length. These horns are easily split into thinner strands, and in this form 

 are used by several tribes of Indians in the southwestern United States t<> make the 



