It is absolutely necessary, in order to
obtain a useful knowledge of the peculiarities and properties of animal
fibres generally, or even specially, that we should be, at least to some
extent, familiar with those of the vegetable fibres. I shall therefore
have, in the first place, something to tell you of certain principal
vegetable fibres before we commence the more special study of the animal
fibres most interesting to you as hat manufacturers, namely, wool, fur,
and hair. What cotton is as a vegetable product I shall not in detail
describe, but I will refer you to the interesting and complete work of
Dr. Bowman, _On the Structure of the Cotton Fibre_. Suffice it to say
that in certain plants and trees the seeds or fruit are surrounded, in
the pods in which they develop, with a downy substance, and that the
cotton shrub belongs to this class of plants. A fibre picked out from
the mass of the downy substance referred to, and examined under the
microscope, is found to be a spirally twisted band; or better, an
irregular, more or less flattened and twisted tube (see Fig.
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