in Anatomy and Natural History, a term used in the same sense with fibre, and signifying those fine threads of which the flesh, nerves, skin, plants, roots, &c., are composed.

Vegetable Filaments form a substance of great use in the arts and manufactures; furnishing thread, cloth, cordage, and the like. For these purposes the filamentous parts of the Cannabis and Linum, or hemp and flax, are commonly used amongst us. But different vegetables have been employed in different countries for the same uses. Putrefaction destroys the pulpy or fleshy matter, and leaves the tough filaments entire. By putrefying the leaf of a plant in water, we obtain the fine flexible fibres which constitute the basis of the ribs and minute veins, and form as it were a skeleton of the leaf. The Sieur de Flacourt, in his history of Madagascar, relates that different kinds of cloth are prepared in that island from the filaments of the bark of certain trees boiled in a strong lye; that some of these cloths are very fine, and approach to the softness of silk, but in durability fall short of cotton; that others are coarser and stronger, and last thrice as long as cotton; and that of these the sails and cordage of his vessel were made.