fibrous parts of the bark of the wild
banana tree, found in the Philippines. Its botanical denomination is
_Musa troglodytarum_. The _abaca_ fiber is not spun or wrung, but is
jointed end to end. The threads are wound and subsequently beaten for
softening, and finally bleached by plunging in lime water for
twenty-four hours, and dried in the sun.

The _pina_ is a fiber obtained from the leaf of the anana tree
(_Bromelias ananas_), and is prepared in the same way as the abaca,
but extreme care must in this case be observed in culling the fibers,
in order to sort in accordance with their degree of fineness.

The Arabs manufacture the stuff for their tents with a mixture of
camel's hair and the fibrous flocks (kind of wadding) obtained from
the stalks of the wafer palm (the _Chamaerops humilis_).

The tissues used by the Arabs are coarse and colored, but the palm
fibers--when freed from gluten, which makes them adhere more
strongly--are susceptible to divide in a most astonishing manner.

The _Agave americana_ is a coarse fiber, mostly used in France for the
manufacture of Gobelin carpets and the production of ropes. Great
efforts have been made to bleach it in a satisfactory manner, as is
done with the _Phormium tenax_, but the former kind of fiber resists
the ordinary treatment with lyes, etc., and an appropriate bleaching
process has only been discovered quite recently.

Jute, which by many is confounded with _Phormium tenax_, or New
Zealand lint, is a fiber which can be divided as finely as desired,
and can be most beautifully bleached.

The jute or Indian _paat_ is generally known as a fibrous and textile
fabric, obtained chiefly from Calcutta, and is similar in nature to
the _Corchorus capsularis_, an Oriental species, known in Oriental
India by the name of _hatta jute_ and _gheenatlapaat_. This fibrous
plant has the property of dividing into the finest parallel fibers,
which can be carded without difficulty, and may be said to have the
excellent properties of linen, hemp, and cotton at once. When properly
bleached, it has an aspect which is as beautiful as that of silk. A
mixture of silk and jute can be easily worked together, and can also
be mixed with such vegetable fibers as cotton and linen. An immense
quantity of flannel and other stuffs are now manufactured and imitated
with the different mixtures containing jute.

The _suun_ is a fiber of a plant in the form of a cane (_Crotalaria
juncea_), and the p