May 1, 1900.J Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." 793 
("strflctural fibre) ; for binding and rough sewing 
material, spruce roots (woody fibre) ; and for fish 
lines, kelp or sea-weed, used in Alaska and other 
high norther latitudes (pseudo fibre). 
The third use is the preparation of certain tree 
basts that are extracted from the bark in layers 
or sheets, and which, by pounding, are made into 
rough substitutes for cloth. Such cloth has long 
been used by the natives of the Pacific Islands, 
and is known as Tappa or Kapa. Other forms, 
such as tliij Damajayua of Ecuador, are used in 
South America as cloth, -while similar fibrous bast 
is employed in India in its primary form for 
sacks, &c. In this group are also included tiie 
more delicate tree basts that are extrncted in thin 
lace-like layers and known as lace-barks, as well 
as otlier forms of which the cigarette bast or 
Cuban bast is an example. Certain close-textured 
fibrous growths from palm trees, when they may 
be secured in thin sheets, likewise come into this 
category. 
A fourth use is in the manufacture of brushes 
and brooms for which a different class of fibres 
are employed than either the fabric or cordage 
fibres. The first es.sentials of a brush fibre are 
toughness and stiffness, qualities found in many 
of the fibres from Endogens, and the brush fibres, 
therefore, especially the commercial species, aro 
largely derived from palms. Grasses and grass 
roots are also used, while the best substitute for 
animal bristles is a species of Agave, the flbre- 
YBSCular bundles of which are large, smooth, rigid, 
and cylindrical. The most importaiiD commer- 
cial brush fibres derived from palms are noted as 
Piassaba or Bass, of which there are several forms 
from as many different species. An American 
example of palm brush fibre is found in the 
finished product from crushed and softened 
palmetto leaf stems. Coarser brush material con- 
sists of twigs or small stems of woody plants, or 
even of splints of wood, while the aborigines 
ond "natives" use anything that has the requisite 
stiffness, from a bunch of grass to the small 
branches of bushes tied together. Examples of 
commercial brush fibres are Tampico from Agave 
Aeteracantha ; Piassaba or Bass, from Attalea 
funifera, a. palm ; and broom root, from the roots 
of Epicampes Macroura, a Mexican grass. 
The fifth group of uses comprises plaited or 
coarsely-wowen manufactures of articles employed 
in the domestic economy, some of which are of 
commercial importance, while the greater number 
are "native" productions, The materials used 
are the whole stems of weeds, rushes, or grasses, 
palm leaves, coarse tree basts, &c., wrought or 
plaited together in the simplest manner possible. 
Some of these articles may be enumerated as 
follows: — Mats and mattings, screens, wallets, 
bags, saddle cloths, sandles, hats, toys, chair 
seats, and basketry in endless form. 
Examples of the commercial manufactures are 
the Japanese mattings from the mat rush {Juncus 
effusus), the Russian mattings from the bast of 
the linden tree, the finely-subdivided leaves of 
Carludovica palmata for piinnmn hats, and the 
split Stems or straw of wheat, rye, barley, and 
rice for braids or straw plait, all of which are 
structural fibres save the Eussian bast. Examples 
of "native" or aboriginal manufacture are the 
sleeping mats from vaiious sedges or gi'asses, 
the East Indian tattees and screens from the 
fragrant roots of the kluis-khus ; the split leaves 
of Yucca used for making sandal*, and the rain- 
coats of China and Japan, — -Useful Fibre Plants 
of the World- 
THE DIFFERENT FORMS K\ WHICH 
NITROGEN IS UTILISED BY PLANTS. 
If we follow the example of Boussingault and 
plan; a sunfiower seed in a sterile soil to which 
the necessary mineral matter and increa.>iiig 
amounts of nitrates are added, or if we repeat tlie 
experiment of Hellriegel and plant barley in well- 
washed sand to which snificient mineral matter 
and increasing amounts of calcium nitrate are 
added, we shall find that the crop produced in- 
creases with the amount of nitrate added. In 
Hellriegers experiments less than 1 gm. of dry 
matter was produced when nitrates weie not 
added, the production of dry matter increasing to 
2j gm. when suificient nitrates were supplied. 
Tnese experiments, however, simply demon- 
strated in an exact manner facts which were 
already well known in practice. The consumption 
of nitrate of soda would never have readied 
its present enormous proportions if farmers 
had not learned to appreciate the efficacy of 
nitrates as a fertiliser. At the present time 
they enter into all fertiliser formulas. The appli- 
cation of this fertiliser i^ necessary, because we 
are not yet able to so control nitrification in the 
soil that it can be made to furnish sufficient 
nitrates for the demands of the crop at exactly the 
time in the spring when they are most needed. 
Nitrates are produced only in warm and moist 
soils, and they are found in the drainage water in 
larger proportion in autumn than in any other 
season. Fortunately the roots of living plants 
have great capacity for retaining the nitrates, and 
thus reduce the loss iu drainage. 
If wheat roots are drawn from the soil during 
the winter, dried and soaked in sulphate of diphe- 
nylamin, they will take on a deep blue colour- 
ation. The amount of nitrates contained in wheat 
roots is surprisingly large. The author has 
found as much as 1 per cent, in dried roots, but 
the liroportion decreases as growth advances^ 
They pass from the roots to the stems and then 
to the leaves, where they arejused in tke formation 
of albuminoid substances. It might be a matter 
of surprise that substances which are so easily 
soluble in water as the nitrates can nevertheless 
be taken up and retained by roots even when 
surrounded by moist soil. Demoussy has shown 
that nitrates can not be removed from the roots 
by washing in cold water, but are extracted 
when the roots are treated with warm water or 
when they are subjected for some time to an 
atmosphere of chloroform and then washed with 
cold water. It appears, therefore, that the nitrates 
penerate by osmosis into the interior of the 
cells and form unstable combinations with the 
protoplasm, resuming their normal state only 
when the protoplasm is modified by elevatioii of 
temperature or the action of chloroform. 
