The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

186 FIBRES, on SILKEN MATERIAL OF TOE PINE APPLE.
a leaf of this plant be examined, it will be found to consist of
an assemblage of fibres running parallel from one extremity of
the leaf to the other, embedded in the soft pabulum. All the
process necessary is to pass the leaf under a " tilt hammer," the
rapid action of which, in a few seconds, completely crushes it,
without in the shghtest degree injuring the fil^re, which re-
mains in a large skein, and then requires to be rinsed out in
soft water, to cleanse it from impurities, and be afterwards dried
m the shade. So simple and rapid is the process, that a leaf, in
a quarter of an hour after being cut from the plant, may be in
a state fit for the purposes of the manufacturer, as a glossy,
white fibre, with its strength unimpaired b}^ any process of maceration,
which, by inducing partial putrefaction, not only ma-
terially injures the strength of flax, but also renders it of a
dingy color.
The pine-plant abounds both in the East and West Indies,
and may be easily propagated from the crown ; ofisetts from
round the base of the fruit, which often amount to upwards of
twenty in number ; and from the young plants which spring
from the parent stem ; its cultivation requires but little care or
expense, and is of such hardy growth, as to be almost indepen-
dent of those casualties of weather, which often prove so detri-
mental to more delicate crops—it is one of those plants which
Nature has scattered so profusely through tropical regions,
whose leaves are thick and liesliy, to contain a large supply of
nourishment, and covered by a thick, glazed cuticle ; admitting
of so little evaporation, that many of them will thrive upon a
barren rock, where no other plant would Uve. Also from the
large portion of oxalic acid which the leaves contain, no animal
will touch them, and are, tlierefore, exempt from the trespasses
of cattle, &c. Indeed no greater proof of the hardiness of the
plant can be given, than the fact, that in many places where
lands have been under tillage,—afterwards abandoned, and al-
lowed to return to a state of nature, the pine-apple plant ex-
hibits the only trace of former cultivation ;
every other cultiva-
ted plant has died away before the encroachments of the sur-
rounding w^ood, while they alone remained increasing from year
to year, and spread into large beds.