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BANANA FIBRE. 
In the Bulletin of 1907 (Vol. vi p. 420) a simple fibre machine in- 
vented by M. Duchemin for dealing with banana and other fibres was 
described and figured. The inventor who has been making investiga- 
tions into the fibres of French Indo-China, has recently passed through 
Singapore on his return to France with samples of the results of his 
work, with the Dcfibrateur. He has devoted some time to the fibre 
from the sheaths of the common eating banana, and has produced an 
excellent and clean fibre from the form known here as Pisang Batu, 
one of the varieties of Musa sapientum which produces seeds, and a 
finer and more silky fibre from the “ Chinese banana ” (probably Musa 
caveiideshii). The fibre of this latter is a good deal shorter than that 
of the common banana, as the stem is much shorter. The stems are 
first crashed and allowed to ferment for some days, than subjected to 
the Defibrateur and washed. 
From this fibre in combination with local grown cotton a very 
strong and useful cloth was made, which took dyes very well. The 
whole of the work was effected by natives, from the preparation of the 
fibre to the weaving of the cloth and the results were excellent. A 
cloth of banana fibre and silk was also made and of sanseviera fibre 
and cotton. 
M. Duchemin pointed out that nothing was lost of the banana 
stem by taking out the fibre, for the pulp and waste could be used to 
feed pigs with after the fibre was extracted just as well as before. For 
as iu Singapore the natives of Annam use the stems of the banana as 
pig food. 
In a country like ours where there are great numbers of banana 
stems available, and simply running to waste, it would certainly be 
worth while to utilise this fibre which could be prepared at little cost, 
and if not perhaps the finest fibre in the world is a good and useful 
one for strong and cheap cloths. 
H. N. R. 
ANOTHER COCONUT BEETLE, 
While examining the shoots of coconut palms on an estate in 
Singapore, where the black beetle oryctes rhinoceros had proved very 
destructive, specimens of another beetle of quite a different group of the 
order were found in tunnels made by the rhinoceros beetle in the palm 
bud. These were large beetles belonging to the group of Elateridae 
popularly known as click-beetles. The insect is an inch and a half 
long, and half an inch across the shoulders of the elytra. The head 
is rather large, the thorax square, and the wing-cases widest at the top 
and tapering towards the tip of the body. The whole insect is blackish 
brown, covered with short appressed yellow hairs, easily rubbed off. 
The wing-cases are marked with lines of impressed dots towards the 
tip. The abdomen was black and covered with the short hairs like 
the upper surface. The legs golden hairy and the rather slender 
antennae dull red brown and hairless. On the under side of the thorax 
projects towards the abdomen a long peg, which fits into a notch in 
Ml 
