A descriptive catalogue of useful fiber plants of the world : including the structural and economic classifications of fibers . and thinner walls, which are thick-ened only in certain parts so as to have peculiar mark-ings, and which often are seen to be made up of a rowof cylindrical cells, with the partitions between ab-sorbed or broken away, are called ducts, or sometimesvessels. There are all gradations between wood cellsand ducts, and between both these and common in most plants the three kinds are fairly cells, or woody fibers, consist of tubes, com-monly between
A descriptive catalogue of useful fiber plants of the world : including the structural and economic classifications of fibers . and thinner walls, which are thick-ened only in certain parts so as to have peculiar mark-ings, and which often are seen to be made up of a rowof cylindrical cells, with the partitions between ab-sorbed or broken away, are called ducts, or sometimesvessels. There are all gradations between wood cellsand ducts, and between both these and common in most plants the three kinds are fairly cells, or woody fibers, consist of tubes, com-monly between one and two thousandths of an diameter. A highlj^ magnified group of these cells from Button-wood (after Gray) illustrates the manner in which wood cells are puttogether, their ends pointed and overlai)ping, thus strengthening thewhole. (See fig. 1.) Wood cells also occur in the bark, though they are longer, finer,and tougher than those found in the wood. They form the princi-pal part of fibrous bark, or the bast layer, and are called Bast 9 Fig. 1.—Woody cellsof Buttonwooil. 10 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE cells. These give tougliuess and flexibility to the structure, andthe extracted bundles of these cells form the filamentous productknown economically as fiber, such as flax, hemp, and jute, derivedfrom Dicotyledonous plants. In Monocotyledons the fibrous cellsare found built up with vessels into a composite structure known asfibro vascular bundle. (Dr. Morris.) Such fiber occurs in the palms, and in the fleshy-leavedAgaves, like the centuryplant, the fibro-vascularbundles being found, not inthe outside covering of thetrunk, as in bark, butthroughout the stem, or leaf,forming what may be termed(in an Agave leaf, for exam-ple) the supi)ortiug struc-ture, or that which givesrigidity and toughness tothe leaf. These filaments orbundles of elongated, thick-ened cells, pressed firmly to-gether, when extracted or^ „ ^. ,, ,, . .^ . , „, separated from the soft ce
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherwashingtongovtprin
