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pie, and the pods contain also a quantity of silk, though less 
than the silk weed. But the coat of its stem is far superior 
in strength to the hemp. I caused to be water rotted a 
considerable quantity of it in 1814, and obtained an excel¬ 
lent hemp as white as snow, remarkable for its strength, 
which proved to be double to that of the common hemp. 
I have been informed that the Indians, called Mowhican- 
es, who formerly inhabited the land where my plantation 
is situated at Greenbush, on the east bank of the Hudson 
river, below Albany, made a great use of this plant, and not 
many years ago were still in the habit of coming from the 
distant place where they now. dwell to collect it. Several 
of my oldest neighbors have assured me, that the ropes 
and yarn which they made from the fibres of that plant, 
were far superior for strength and durability to those made 
of flax or hemp. That sort of apocinum being perennial 
could be cultivated and multiplied with the greatest advan¬ 
tage, and being more natural to low and overflowed lands, 
could render profitable certain pieces of ground which are 
now totally unproductive. 
The apocinum cannabinum in its natural state, growing or 
sods and in bogs, is lower than the silk weed, but cultivated 
it would probably grow larger and liberally reward the at¬ 
tention paid to its improvement. 
P. S. Since this communication was presented to the So¬ 
ciety, X have been informed that a French gentleman, who 
attends the dyers* department of the manufactory of Mr. 
Lynch, at Rome, has discovered that the leaves of the ascle- 
pias, and probably of all the apocinums, were an excellent 
substitute for the woad. Dr. Low, of Albany, has also ob¬ 
served that the milky juices of the asclepias were equal if 
not superior in many respects to the opium extracted from 
the white poppy. It is to be hoped, for the good of the 
community, that those gentlemen will soon publish their 
important discoveries. 
