HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 237 
bags may be purchased at about the same price as a similar weight of 
the raw material, leaving no apparent margin for spinning and weaving." 
(p. 249.) 
Jute is a remarkably beautiful fibre — soft, silk}^, and easily spun ; and if 
to its other advantages are added those of strength and durability, it would 
probably supersede all other fibrous materials. But it is as rapid in its 
decay as in its growth, and is, in reality, the most perishable of fibres. 
From the period of its first production in the clean state, it slowly, and of 
its own accord, changes in color, losing the beautiful pearly white which at 
first distinguishes it, and assuming successive shades of fawn color and brown. 
At the same time, its strength proportionately diminishes. Circumstances 
hasten or retard this decay, and moisture is particularly injurious to it. 
High-pressure steam almost melts it away, so that when sail-cloth adul- 
terated with jute is submitted to high-pressure steam (of only thirty pound 
pressure) for four hours, mere washing afterwards removes the jute. It is 
believed that an improvement in the process of setting would increase both 
its strength and durability ; but it is very doubtful if it can ever be ren- 
dered equal in these respects to either hemp or flax. 
The extent of the foreign traffic which has already been established in 
this fibre, notwithstanding its imperfections, may be judged of from the 
fact, that in the years 1850 and 1851 the quantity of jute exported from 
Calcutta alone was valued at two millions of rupees, or ^200,000, and the 
jute or gunny cloth at an equal sum ; and that it has already obtained a 
considerable place among the raw materials employed in our British manu- 
factories, may be inferred from the fact, that fifteen thousand tons a year 
are worked up in the town of Dundee alone. 
YASES AND YASE PLANTS. 
The introduction of vases, tazzas, baskets, kc, either of worked stone or 
the various imitations of it, have now so general an introduction into garden 
scenery ; more especially into those laid out in the geometric style, that a 
few words on the positions they should occupy, and the plants most suit- 
able for placing in them, may not perhaps be unacceptable to your readers. 
In gardens designed to form an architectural adjunct to the mansion, and 
which should therefore be carried out agreeably with the order which charac- 
terizes the principal building, vases, kc, will form a considerable feature, 
