A SUCCESSOR ?
All this is preface to a letter of peculiar interest which reaches me from Kenya. In that rich and various colony (if this useful word is still allowed) Brotex is being successfully grown, and my correspondent desires to test also Erbifex, which is being tried out especially in Suffolk and is engaging the special attention of the Suffolk county authorities. I hope that it will be found possible to send specimens for growing in Kenya ; but it may be that Kenya already possesses a native plant that will soon discover equal virtues. A bush has been found there which hears seed pods that contain a material resembling a very soft and satiny cotton. The difference from cotton is that the fluff is free, and is packed in a sort of double cone about two inches in length. The plant grows to a height of five or six feet, and cultivation has increased the size of the pod by about 50 per cent. In the one experiment yet carried out it has done much better than the cotton.
• • * *
Previous page
