166 



POPULAE, ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



the name of fope-learing {fimifera) to be given to this 

 species. The fibres are thick^ often about the size of the 

 small green rush. They are remarkably round and not 

 very pliable; they are neither woven nor spun in this 

 country^ but are much employed in making brushes and 

 brooms. The brushes of the street-cleaning machines are 

 always made of piassava. Por a long time the Attalea was 

 only known by its fruit, the Coquilla-nut, and the names 

 Cocos lapidea and LitJiocarptts cocciformis were given to it ; 

 but; thanks to the Kew Museum, the question was solved 

 in that establishment, and those curious nuts, and the 



Monkey Grass " of Para, were proved to be products of 

 the same plant. Since then the trade in piassava has very 

 much increased ; it is almost exclusively furnished by the 

 provinces of Ceara and Para, in Brazil. About 800 tons 

 were imported in 1851. 



There are two or three materials which, though not 

 strictly speaking vegetable fibres, for textile fabrics, never- 

 theless are so closely allied to that class of vegetable pro- 

 ducts that they must be described in this place. 



Bast. — The inner bark of T'dia EurojocEa. (Nat. Ord. 

 Tiliacece.) This is the common Lime or Linden-tree of 

 our woods and hedgerows; but it is only in Northern 



