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" be reckoned on yearly, ' in a good soil and a favour- 
" able season, after the plants are of a proper 
" age.' 
" This would be at the rate of li tons of fibre per 
" acre per annum at the end of three or three and a 
" half years, of the gross value (at the rate of 30/. per 
"ton) of 45/. Whether this return can be depended 
" upon for the West Indies on an extensive area I am 
" unable to say." 
In an experimental trial carried on at Jamaica, 1,185 
pounds of green leaves of 8. ffuineensis yielded 29 
pounds, 10 ounces of dry fibre. This was cleaned by 
machine. The reports of brokers were as follows : — (a) 
" Value, 18/. per ton, mixed fibre partly uncleaned ; "(6.) 
" Poorly cleaned a good deal of mixture in it, 
"not so strong, value about 25/. per ton;" 
"(c.) No good in the state sent; it has a lot of bark 
" in it, and requires more dressing ; both ends are 
" clean, but the centre is dirty. Price if dressed 
"properly, would be as good asS. zeplanica, viz., 30?. 
" per ton." 
In September last, His Excellency Sir William Robin- 
son, Governor of Trinidad, forwarded to Kew samples 
of fibre of this species, which he stated had been 
prepared " at the couvict depot at Ohaguanas without 
the aid of machinery of any kind." The report of 
Messrs. Ide and Christie on the Trinidad sample was 
as follows : — 
" In point of cleanness and softness of fibre it seems 
" well prepared ; but to compete successfully with 
" Mauila hemp it would require to be of a better 
" colour and of equal if not superior strength. We 
" value it for rope-making purposes at 207. 
" per ton in London. The small piece of 
"Manila fibre which we enclose has a value to-dav 
" (Sept. 24, 1886), of 31/. per ton." 
A few leaves taken from plants grown at Kew were 
recently passed through Death's fibre machine, but 
the result, owing to the smallness of the quantity 
and the necessity of adjusting the machine to the 
size of each leaf, was not satisfactory, but it is not 
devoid of interest. The report of Messrs. Ide and 
Christie on the sample of fibre submitted to them 
was as follows :—" Short and only moderate strength 
"Value 23/. per ton. We reported on fibre from 
"this plant from Trinidad in September last, when 
" we valued the sample at 20t. per ton. The difference 
"now is due solely to the advance in the price of 
"Sisal hemp." 
Of samples of fibre of 6'. guineerisi?, the Kew Museums 
contain one specimen machine-cleaned from Jamaica 
sent by Mr. D. Morris, 1884 with the following note — 
" Leaves 3^ to 4 feet long, broader than &: zevlanicd, 
mottled, unarmed, common and easily propagated " 
A specimen from Trinidad, cleaned by hand for- 
warded by Governor Sir William Robinson, and valued 
by Messrs. Ide and Christie at 20/. per ton. Also 
a leaf, rope, and fibre from S. E. Africa, sent by Mr 
T. Barnes. A specimen of leaf and fibre from Sir. 
John Kirk appears uuder the following label " Macul- 
ated Sausevieria, called ' Konje,' near Lnpata, 1860 " 
This is probably identical with S. guineensit. 
2. Sausevieria longiflora, Sims, a uative of equatorial 
Africa, was first figured and described by Dr Sims 
m 1826 at tab. 2,634 of the Botanical Magazine The 
leaves are very like those of 8. quince'nsis, but as 
grown wi'h us, they are larger, flatter, not so firm 
m texture, and not invariably blotched with green 
The best character by which it may he known from 
S. guvnecmie is the llower, which is 3A or 4 inches 
ong instead of 2 inches. We have "specimens iu 
the Herbarium with flowers as large as this from 
(luiuea gathered by Barter and Mann; from the 
Congo by Prof. C.Smith; from the Zambesi country 
by Mr. Buchanan j from Angola by the late Mr 
Monteiro; from N'iaui-niam land by Dr. Schweinfurth. 
Wm.ther all these are the same species it is im- 
POMble to say at present. There is also a large 
flowers. I spec.es, called Samevieria bractcata, which 
{ f «-o"i'" 1 T b , y 5? W^lwitaeh i» Angola. 
In 18,9 Sir John Kirk forwarded through the Foreign 
Oftre n specimen of fibre from the leaf of a species 
of mmnrk found growing ou tht* mainland opposite 
the island of Zanzibar. The specimen sent was the 
produce of a single leaf, the length of which was 
9 feet. The report of Messrs. Noble on this specimen 
was as follows.- — "We have carefully examiued the 
" fire from East Africa; it is worth as a hemp 22/. 
"per ton at the present time" (1879). 
Recently Sir John Kirk has been good enough to 
furnish more detailed information as regards the 
plant yielding this fibre, which leads us to conclude 
that it is probably S. longiflora, Sims. [See footnote, 
p. 50.] In a letter dated 2nd Dec. 1886 he mentions: — 
" It grows abundantly near Pangane on the main- 
" land opposite the island of Zmzibar and in the 
" district between that and Mombasa, and is used 
" by the natives to yield a long and useful fibre of 
" which I sent specimens to Kew some years ago. 
" The plant has flowered with me at Mbweni in 
" the island of Zanzibar, but the soil being too dry 
" and sandy it did not succeed very well. 
" The flowers are on a stalk crowded iu a head, 
" not racemose, or in a spike, as in another species 
" common in the island. Unfortunately my flowering 
" specimens rotted in drying, so that I have never been 
" able to send home the inflorescence for identification. 
" The leaves which yield the fibre are at first flat 
" and clouded, but after a time the lower part be- 
" comes much elongated, round and grooved ou the 
" upper side, the end only remaining flattened and 
" not so mottled. 
" It is a plant worth being introduced to our tropical 
" colonies." 
Several plants of this species are growing in the 
Palm House at Kew, from which it would appear 
that it is a very free growing and robust species. 
Some leaves from these plants were lately tested 
for fibre by means of Death's fibre machine, which 
yielded at the rate of l - 69 per cent, of clean dry 
fibre. The report of Messrs. Ide and Christie on 
specimens thus prepared was as follows : — " A very 
" bright, clean, strong fibre and in every way a most 
" desirable commercial article. It would compete with 
" the best Sisal hemp for rope-making purposes. 
" Value 30/. per ton." 
There is little doubt that from the robust habit 
and size which this species is capable of attaining, 
that it is a most valuable fibre plant. As reparted 
by Sir John Kirk, a single leaf of what we take to 
be the same species under favourable circumstances 
attains a height of 9 feet; and from one such leaf 
excellent fibre weighing J oz. has been produced. 
This and other examples of fibre are in the Kew 
Museum, No. 2. 
3. Of Sansevieria Kirkii, Baker MS., we know the 
leaves only, but it is evidently a distinct species. 
It was sent to Kew by Sir John Kirk in October 
1881 as a native of the east coast of Africa. We 
have had it iu cultivation at Kew since that time, 
but so far it has not flowered. The leaf is oblauceolate 
in shape, and very horny in texture. We have only 
grown it to a length of 2 feet, with a breadth in 
the middle of 3 inches. The leaf is dull green, with 
a distinct brown edge, and is much mottled on bjth 
sides. The base is much thicker, and its edges are 
more incurved thau in either of the three other 
comparatively flat-leaved kinds, and down thu back 
of the lower part of a leaf run about five distiuct grojves, 
a character which distinguishes it readily from S. 
guincensis and A longiflora. 
Specimeus of fibr^ prepared from S. Kirkii, yielded 
at the rate of P69 per cent, by weight of tho 
green leaf. They were described by Messrs. Ide aud 
Christie as follows : — " Rather stout, but very clean 
"and good colour : the strength fair. Value 27/. pet 
ton." 
4. Sausevieria Ihyrslflora, Thunb., is the species 
on which the genus Sausevieria was first con- 
stituted by Thunberg, in the year 1704. Tho l<nf 
is nearly flat and does not reach above a font or 
a foot and a half in length, and is an inch and a 
half or two inches broad at the middle, with nluind- 
ant mottling aud a distinct red edge, The flower 
does not differ from that of S. guiwniii, It is ■ 
uative of too eastern parts of 0*pu Colony. Zeyuci 
