HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 233 
Thus the author divides at first the genera which he admits into seven 
tribes, (almost as many as of genera,) and redivides them thus : 
Tribe I. — Melocactoideae. 
Melocactus. Anhaloniura. Mammillaria. 
Tribe II. — Echinocactoideae. 
Echinocactus. 
Tribe III. — Cereastreae. 
Echinopsis. Pilocereus. Cereus. 
Tribe IV. — Phyllanthoideae. 
Phyllocactus. Epiphyllum. 
Tribe V. — Rhipsalidae. 
Rhipsalis. Lepismium. 
Tribe VI. — Opuntiacbae. 
Opuntia. 
Tribe VII. — Pereskiaceae. 
Pereskia. 
INDIAN SUBSTITUTES FOR RUSSIAN HEMP. 
The war between Russia and the Western States has caused some incon- 
venience, especially to gardeners, by the stoppage of the supply of bast 
mats ; the English are now looking to their Indian colonies for fibres to 
replace the Russian hemp and bast. We make some extracts from a review 
in the July number of the Edinburgh Review, of Dr. Royle's work on the 
subject. 
The plantain or banana tribe deserve a distinguished place among the 
yielders of fibre. Sometimes improperly spoken of as trees, they are only 
large herbaceous plants, of which the stem is formed by the foot-stalks of 
the leaves, which successively ensheath or wrap round each other. These 
sheathing foot-stalks, and therefore the entire stem of the plant, except the 
white and sprouting core, abound in fibre. From some varieties of plantain, 
and in some parts of the world, this fibre is already largely extracted as an 
article of commerce. The Manilla hemp, already well known as a sub- 
stitute for the true hemp, is the produce of a banana, the Musa textilis. 
This variety of fibre has attracted much attention, from the beauty of its 
appearance, its durability, its power of resisting great strains, and also 
because it is lighter and cheaper than Russian hemp. The rigging of many 
