VEGETABLE FIBERS 



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Blossom and bolls of a cotton plant. 



filaments, after treatment or ginning, are easily twisted into threads 

 from which are manufactured cotton cloth, such as muslin, calico, 

 cretonne, and gingham. In addition to the fiber, cottonseed oil, 

 a substitute for olive oil, is 

 made from the seeds, the hulls 

 are used for making artificial 

 silk, rayon, and the refuse 

 makes fodder for cattle. 



Other vegetable fibers. 

 Among the other important 

 vegetable fibers are Manila 

 hemp, which comes from the 

 leaf-stalks of a plant of the 

 banana family, and true hemp, 

 which is the bast or woody 

 fiber of a plant cultivated in 

 most warm parts of the earth. 

 These fibers are used for twine 

 or rope. Flax is another im- 

 portant fiber plant, grown largely in Russia, Ireland, Belgium, and 

 other parts of Europe. Flax is becoming a more important crop 

 in this country although it is raised here chiefly for its seeds. Linen 

 cloth is made from the bast fibers of the stem of this herb. Burlap 

 and coarse bags are made from the fiber of the jute plant, raised 

 in India. 



Vegetable oils. Some of the same plants which give fiber also 

 produce oil. Cottonseed oil pressed from cotton seeds, linseed 

 oil from the seeds of the flax plant, and coconut oil (the covering 

 of the nut produces a fiber) are examples. One of the important 

 industries of California is olive culture, the fruit being used as a 

 table delicacy, while oil pressed from the fruit is used largely in 

 salad dressings. 



Drug-producing plants. Quinine, the specific remedy for 

 malaria, was known by the Indians in South America before the 

 white men came. It is made from the bark of the cinchona tree. 

 South America also furnishes us with cocaine, a habit-forming 

 drug made from the leaves of the coca tree of Peru. Morphine 



