97 
[ Rep. Ko, 564. ] 
seeds the committee have seen ; they are still on their table; a portion have 
already been distributed, and the remainder are intended for general distri¬ 
bution by the subscriber. Nevertheless the fibres of the petioles of even 
the common Bananas and Plantains known in the West Indies, have been 
thought worthy of legislative encouragement in Jamaica : one hundred 
pounds premium being offered by the Assembly for the best specimen of 
this petiolar hemp in each county. One premium was gained by Dr. Stew¬ 
art West, for the best specimen produced in the county of Surry, about 
thirty years ago. He also gave the form of a very simple and cheap ma¬ 
chine, by which he eftected the separation of the cellular substance from 
the fibres. As emancipation deprives the whites of a command of labor 
for their ancient staples, it is highly probable that the assembly will soon 
encourage again the production of petiolar hemp, from certain species of 
the Banana tribe; especially as the people are actually introducing, - from 
Carthagena, the fibrous fleshy-leaved plant called Pita de Guataca. About 
fifteen years ago, the attention of the Horticultural and Agricultural So¬ 
ciety of the East Indies was attracted towards the production and prepa¬ 
ration of Banana hemp. Several communications were read to the society. 
All parties spoke highly of the topic ; but the subscriber has not had the 
means to ascertain what progress has since been made. About six years 
ago, a paper appeared in a French journal, entitled Notice concerning a 
new Textile material, which can be profitably produced in the colony of 
Algiers,’^ read before the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture, by Je¬ 
rome Saint Hilaire. In this paper Saint Hilaire gives an imperfect account 
of a wild Banana of Manilla, called the Abaea, and recommends the pro¬ 
pagation, in general, of the species of Banana, for the fibrous materials af¬ 
forded by the petiolar lamina of their stalks. It appears that public atten¬ 
tion, in Paris, had been attracted by the manufacture of stuffs very re¬ 
markable for their splendor, being as brilliant as those of silk. The great 
success of the first manufacturer of an unknown staple induced.rivals to 
engage in the same busines ; and, by the lawsuit which ensued, the secret 
was made public. 
The most able Botanists appointed to examine these new fibres were 
greatly puzzled in their attempts to ascertain the kind of plant, and the 
part of plant, from which they were obtained. At first it was supposed 
that they were the foliaceous fibres of the leaves of the Phormium Tenax 
or Flax Lily of New Zealand, even then extensively mutiplied in France. 
As, however, these glossy-white fibres, under the name of Abaca, were 
proved to be imported from the East Indies, inquiries were made of Mons. 
Perrottet, the botanical agricultural voyager of the French Government, to 
whom Europe and America are indebted for the importation of the Monts 
multicaulis, from Manilla, and to his letter of the same period, is the world 
indebted for the most exact knowledge of the fibrous Banana of the Philip 
pines that ever has been published. During four months’ stay at Manilla 
and its vicinity, he had opportunities to know exactly the plant itself; the 
simple manner of extracting its fibres; and the usages for which the fibres 
were generally employed. He, furthermore, brought with him to the 
Garden of the Museum in Paris, several living individuals of this interest¬ 
ing Banana ; and, in 1821, he published a catalogue of all the plants in¬ 
troduced by him, including, at page 42, this valuable plant, under the 
name of Musa abaca. To extract the fibres, he says that the natives em¬ 
ploy three different processes: 
1st. Maceration of the stalks, or petioles in stagnant water.' . 
7 
