OCR Text |
Show JAVANESE WEED OF VALUE. Its Fibers Make the Best Kind of Mattress Known. Every year Amsterdam receives nearly 1,000 pounds' weight of n curious curi-ous and interesting vegetablo known in Java and in tho trndo as kapok. It Is a sort of yellow wadding which nnturo uses as n covering for tho seeds of certain trees ln tho Malaccas. Malac-cas. Its fibers being very nonroslst-lng, nonroslst-lng, it has been found impossible to spin or weavo it, but it glve3 excellent excel-lent results for bedding, making a mattress delightfully soft If It is exposed ex-posed to tho sun beforo being used. It Is exceedingly light and buoyant, In this respect greatly surpassing cork, as It will support In tho water thirty-flvo thirty-flvo times Its own weight. Tho treo whence It Is dorlved (Erlodendron) grows rnpldly, and ln tho second year Is twclvo to fifteen feet high, but it does not fruit abundantly until tho fourth year. Like the cotton plant It bostrows two gifts on man, tho special wadding mentioned, which lines tho husk, and tho oil extracted from tho seeds, which Is used especially especi-ally In the Chinese markets. The threads of the soft fiber taken from the pods aro light yellow, rather silky and only about an Inch In length. They aro made into nn Inch In length. |