68 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agricultiirist.'^ [July 1, 1899. 
Sometimes vessels- There are all gradations 
between wood cells and ducts, and between both 
these and common cells. But in most plants the 
three kinds are fairly distinct. Wood cells or 
woody fibres consist of tubes, commonly between 
one and two thousandths of an inch in diam- 
eter. When highly-magnified one can see how 
button-wood, for instance, illustrates the manner 
wood cells are put together, their ends pointed 
and overlapping, thus strengthening the whole. 
Wood cells also occur in the bark, though they 
are longer, finer, and tougher than those found in 
the wood. They form the principal p&n of fibrous 
bark, or the bast layer, and are called 6.7,.s^-cells. 
These give toughness and flexibility to the struc- 
ture, and the extracted bundles of these cells form 
the filamentous product known economically as 
fibre, such as flax, hemp and jute derived from 
Dicotyledonous plants. " In monocotyledons the 
fibrous cells are found built up with vessels into 
a composite structure known as fibro-vascular 
bundle." — (Dr. Morkis.) Such fibre occurs in the 
palms, and in the fleshy-leaved Agaves, like the 
century plant, the fibro-vascular bundles being 
found not in the outside covering of the trunk, 
as in bark, but throughout the stem, or leaf, 
forming what may be termed (in an Agave leaf, 
for example) the supporting structure, or that 
which gives rigidity and toughness to the leaf. 
These filaments or bundles of elongated, thickened 
cells, pressed firmly together, when extracted or 
separated from the soft cell mass by which 
they are surrounded, may be known as structural 
fibre, of which the fibre of sisal hemp is an 
example. The simiile cells already described, 
when single or agglutinated and produced on the 
surface of the leaves, stems, and seeds of xjlants as 
hairs, form a fibrous material also valuable, to 
which the name surface fibre has been given. 
Such hairs are found enveloping the seeds of 
plants, and when they are produced in the boils 
or capsules of species of Gossypium form the 
cotton of commerce. 
The fibre bundles, therefore, whether occurring 
as bast fibre or structural fibre, or whether in the 
form of simple cells, as .surface fibre, may be re- 
garded as the spinning units, and a flax thread is 
"but an aggregation of bundles of bast cells purified 
and cleansed of all extraneous matter and simply 
twisted together. In the perfecting of processes 
therefore for separating, cleansing, and purifying 
the bundles of cell structure known as fibre, a 
knowledge of their physical structure is absolutely 
essential. The rotting of a fibre is simply the 
breaking down of the cellular structure or com- 
plete separation of the individual cells, by which 
means the filament is resolved into its smallest 
parts, each part being measured by the length to 
which the original cell attains during the period 
of its growth. 
( To he continued. ) 
RINDERPEST INOCULATION. 
" Alston Lodge," Cinnamon Gardens, 
Colombo, June 15. 
DBAtt Siii,-'-! herewith send you a report on 
the roci nt outliteak of rinderpest at ilatton, \yhich 
aflorde'l m.'; an opporluuiiy of trying i'rofuidor 
Koch's and Dr. Edington's methods of preventive 
inoculation. As you will see from the report and 
Mr. Paterson's letter, the results have been very 
encouraging. 
Being only a private practitioner who has but 
lately started practice, I have not yet fully 
equipped myself with all the necessary apparatus 
for inoculation, and I was much disappointed to 
find that I could not obtain such apparatus in 
Ceylon, while even the Government A'eterinary 
Department was unable to suj^ply me with a 
veterinary hypodermic syringe in working order. 
I infend carrying on inoculal ion, if t he opportunity 
offer.-^, and I am glad to say that another estate 
proprietor in Dikoya is viillmg to have his whole 
herd operated on. — I remain, dear sir, yours faith- 
fully. 
A. CHINNIAH. 
I received an urgent call from Messrs. Aitken, 
Spence & Co., Hatton, on the 4th of May last, and 
on my arrival there I was told that w itliin one week 
th ree of the best bullocks, out of a batch recently 
purclinsed in Colombo, had died within a day, after 
serve purging. There was another bullock which 
shewed similiar symptoms, and to see which I was 
specially summoned. When I saw the animal he 
was only off feed, with no fever, and a stimulant 
mixture brouglit him round in a few days. 
When I was asked my opinion, I told the Manager 
that unless I held a j^o-^t mortem examination i 
should not be able to say -anything, for the 
symptoms might have been either those of poison- 
ing or rinderpest. I advised him, however, to 
adopt the ordinary precautions against the spread 
of contagious diseases which he was very willing to 
do. 
On the 7th May I received another telegraphic 
message intimating that three more animals had 
taken ill and that two of them were in a very bad 
way. I proceeded thither on the 8th of May and 
held a ^jost morte^n examination on two animals. 
With the bile obtained from them 1 inoculated 
four bullocks with 10 cc. of fresh bile. Of the 
four inoculated, one caught the contagion and 
died. This animal was a high-conditioned lazy 
beast, and I believe it was owing to this fact that 
he succumbed so readily (very possibly infected 
previous to the inoculation). 
I may mention that one inoculated animal was 
intentionally exposed to contagion, but did not 
contract the disease. 
I assured the Manager that inoculation was all 
that we could do, but I was unable to inoculate 
the whole herd at one time, owing to the fact that 
the working of the animals could not have been 
suspended. Under the circumstances I was able 
to inoculate only a few head of cattle at a time. 
Those that were not inoculated, readily caught 
the contagion and most of them died ; while out of 
twenty-seven that had been inoculated by me only 
two contracted the disease, one of which died under 
the circumstances I have detailed above. 
The following is a detailed account of my ino- 
culation :— - 
t)th May.— Inoculated four bullocks with 10 
cc. of fresh bile. 
I6th May. — Inoculated two, one with 10 cc. 
the other 18 cc. of glyceriuated bile. 
