172 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
from the banks of the Jumna and the Granges to the valleys of 
Yorkshire and Lancashire, and become the source of a manu- 
facture the largest and most important with which the world is 
acquainted. The weaving of fibres seems to have been a very 
early human art ; the fig-leaves of our first parents must soon 
have given way to the rude intertwining of the woody fibres of 
the softer parts of plants. Amongst barbarous tribes at the 
present day, we find, however slender may be their habiliments, 
that these are generally composed of some forms of the woody 
fibres of plants. These fibrous garments are composed, how- 
ever, of materials essentially different from cotton ; and when 
we examine the simplicity of the means of procuring and 
manufacturing the one as compared with the other, we cannot 
but feel that the introduction of cotton as an article for making 
wearing apparel indicates a very considerable advance in civil- 
ization. For the purpose of understanding the difference 
between cotton and other fibrous materials, we must enter a 
little into the history of the structure of plants. 
All plants are made up of two kinds of tissue, one called vas- 
cular, the other cellular. They both originate in the same pro- 
cesses of growth. The vascular tissue is composed of long- 
fibres, which he together in bundles, and form the hard and 
elongated parts of plants. If we take a leaf and examine 
it, we find a number of ribs passing off from each side of the 
leaf-stalk, which is prolonged into the leaf. These ribs are 
composed of vascular tissue ; and if we take a leaf and pull one 
of these ribs to pieces with a couple of needles, and place it 
under the microscope, we shall easily discern the long fibres of 
which it is composed. Such fibres are found in the bark and 
stems of plants (pi. xi., figs. 26 and 27) ; and if we take any deli- 
cate plant and treat it as we did the leaf, we shall find the same 
fibres. When these fibres are plain and straight, without any 
markings, they are called plain vascular tissue, or woody fibres. 
Now, it is these fibres, abounding in the bark and stem of 
the flax-plant (pi. xi., fig. 25) and the hemp-plant (fig. 24), 
which yield the material of our linen and hempen manufac- 
tures. The fibres of a vast number of other plants are used in 
various parts of the world for the same purposes. In this country 
we employ the fibres of New Zealand flax (fig. 23), of jute, 
Manilla hemp, and cocoa-nut (fig. 22). The vegetable kmgdom 
presents us with an infinite store of these fibres, and many 
more plants will undoubtedly contribute their share, as advanc- 
ing civilization causes their properties to be better understood 
and appreciated. 
Cellular tissue, which consists of variously-shaped cells united 
together, everywhere fills up the interstices formed by the vas- 
cular tissue (figs. 26 and 27). It also covers over the whole of 
