The plant is annual, and attains a height of three to ten feet, according to the soil and climate.  Its stalk is hollow, filled with a soft pith, and surrounded by a cellular texture coated with a delicate membrane which runs parallel to the stalk and is covered by a thin cuticle.  In Russia the seed is sown in June and gathered in September.

The Manila hemp (Musa textilis) does not appear to have been known to the ancients, and is now found in the Philippine Islands, the Indian Archipelago, and Japan, regions unexplored by the ancients.  It is also found at the base of the Himalaya Mountains.  It is a large herbaceous plant, which requires a warm climate, and is cut after a growth of eighteen months.  The outer layers or fibres of the plant are called the bandola, which is used in the fabrication of cordage; the inner layers have a more delicate fibre called the lupis, which is woven into fine fabrics; while the intermediate layers, termed tupoz, are made into cloth of different degrees of fineness.

The filaments, after they are gathered, are separated by a knife, and rendered soft and pliable by beating them with a mallet; their ends are then gummed together, after which they are wound into balls, and the finer qualities are woven without going through the process of spinning.  With the produce of this plant the natives pay their tribute, purchase the necessaries of life, and provide themselves with clothing.

The imports of this article into Great Britain in 1859 were very considerable, while the United States also imported a very large amount.  It is used for cordage by the ships of both countries.  In one respect it differs from wool, cotton, and hemp, the fibres of all of which are found by the microscope to consist of tubes, while the filaments of the Musa textilis, although often fine, are in no case hollow, and consequently are less flexible and divisible than other fibres.

Within the last twenty years, a new export from India, in the shape of Jute and its fabrics, has grown up from insignificance into commercial importance, and is now among the chief exports of the country.  This article demands our particular attention, as it requires but four months for its production, furnishes a very large supply of textile material, is raised at one-fifth the expense of cotton, and has been sold in India as low as one cent per pound.

Jute is generally grown as an after-crop in India upon high ground, and flourishes best in a hot and rainy season.  The seed is sown broadcast in April or May, when there is sufficient rain to moisten the ground.  When the plant is a foot and a half high it is weeded.  It rises on good soil to the height of twelve feet, and flowers between August and September.  The stems are usually three-fourths of an inch in diameter.  The leaves have long foot-stalks, the flowers are small and yellow, and the capsules short and globose, containing five cells for the seed.  The fruit ripens in September and October.  The average yield in fibre to the acre is from four hundred to seven hundred pounds.  When the crop is ripe, the stems are cut close to the root, made up into bundles, and deposited for a week in some neighboring pond or stream.