THE FIBROUS PLANTS OF INDIA FITTED FOR CORDAGE, CLOTHING, AND PAPER. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF FLAX, HEMP, AND THEIR SUBSTITUTES. BY J. FORBES ROYLE, M.D., F.R.S., SUPERINTENDENT OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY'S BOTANIC FORMERLY LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. BOMBAY SMITH, TAYLOR, AND CO. 1855. PREFACE. HAVING a few years since paid attention to the subject of Fibres, and anticipating that the troubled state of Europe would cause a demand for those of India, I resumed the subject in the autumn of the year 1853. In the following spring the distinguished senator, of whom the Indian Medical Service has reason to be proud, and whose loss the public has now to lament, Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P., having suggested Indian Fibres as a subject for inquiry to the Council of the Society of Arts, they did me the honour to ask whether I could prepare a paper on the subject. My time was then fully occupied with a general work on the Commercial Products of India,' several sheets of which were then, as they still are, in type, and the period for my Course of Lectures at King's College was approaching. I therefore found it impossible to devote sufficient time to the elaboration of a suitable paper, but offered to give a Lecture, which might be reported if thought desirable. This I did on the 11th of April, and, with the permission of the Honorable the Court of Directors, illustrated it with specimens of Fibre, Canvas, and Cordage, the property of the East India Company. The Report of it was published in the Journal of the Society of Arts,' on the 14th of April, 1854. |