DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 271 



table matters. The resulting fiber, equal to about 13£ per cent of tbe fresh needles, 

 is spun into yarn and tben woven. The material is largely used in Vienna and Bres- 

 lau for hospital and military blankets. The fiber is also employed as a substitute 

 for horsehair in stuffing. 



Pinus sabiniana. Digger Pine. 



Common names. — Bull pine, digger pine, Sabine's pine, gray leaf pine, etc. 

 California, Shasta County, aloug the foothills of the Coast Range and the western 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada, below 4,000 feet elevation. The wood is light, soft, and 

 strong, brittle, compact, but not durable. The edible nuts supply the Indians with 

 food, and "the big fibrous roots are used by them for weaving into many domestic 

 articles." A tree, 75 to 100 feet. 



Pinus strobus. White Pine. 



The common white pine needs no description. Sargent says of it : "More largely 

 manufactured into lumber, shingles, laths, etc., than any other North American tree." 



Woody Fiber. — The species is only introduced in this catalogue on account of its 

 being one of the woods commonly used for the packing material known as "excelsior/' 

 which is to that extent a fiber substitute, used also for upholstery and for filling 

 cheap mattresses. Other woods used for this purpose are poplar and spruce. 



There are a dozen different kinds of machines in use for reducing lumber to the 

 sort of fine shavings which form excelsior. After cutting the lumber to right 

 lengths and properly seasoning it, it is run through the machine, which practically 

 cuts it first into thin ribbons and then into threads of fiber by means of closely set 

 parallel cutters. Second-growth timber and clean body wood is usually employed 

 in the manufacture. 



Pipturus argenteus. 



Exogen. Urticacew. Tall shrub or tree, 50 to 60 feet. 

 A North American plant, also found in Australia and the islands of the Pacific. In 

 Queensland it is known as the Queensland grass-cloth plant, or native mulberry, and 

 is called in the vernacular Kongangu. Met with on the banks of rivers and smaller 

 streams. Dr. Christy states that it affords a fiber of fine texture and great strength, 

 but difficult of preparation. The bark also yields a brown dye. P. asper is a Cuban 

 species. P. gaudickaudianns is a Sandwich Island species, cited by Hillebrand as 

 P. albida, "the Mamake of the n tives of Hawaii; one of the two principal Kapa 

 plants, not known from elsewhere.'' 



Pissang utan (Malay). See Musa textilis. 

 Pita. 



The term "pita" has been given to the fiber of several distinct species of fleshy 

 leaved plants, and is, on this account, confusing as a name to distinguish any partic- 

 ular kind of fiber. It is used oftentimes as a prefix, pita de corojo being an example, 

 meaning corojo "fiber," or corojo "hemp," from Acrocomia lasiospatlia. It has also been 

 given as a distinctive name to the fiber of Agave americana > Fur crcea gigantea, Karatas 

 plwmieri, and Bromelia sylvestris. I think the name should either be abandoned alto- 

 gether or used exclusively to designate the fiber of Agave americana, to which it has 

 been mo^t commonly applied. In addition to the above might be mentioned several 

 compound names such as pita floja, from Fnrcrcea gigantea, etc. 



Pite (Fr.). Agave americana. 



Plagianthus betulinus. Ribbon Tree of New Zealand. 



This species belongs to a small genus of Sterculiacea?, confined to South Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand, and when full grown is a tree 70 to 80 feet high, though 

 often seen as a straggling bush. It is sometimes called the lace bark tree. 



