106 No. 98 ( ECONOMIC CONDITIONS in London at £ 24 per ton , the price of the best Calcutta jute in the sameyear being £ 25 per ton. The jute plant of the Sudan is Corchorus olitorius, and it is commonly cultivated for its leaves, which are used as a vegetable as well as for fibre. This plant has been reported as occurring in a wild state over extensive areas in the vicinity of swamps and islands on the White Nile . It was there found growing to a height of 6 ft . , and the natives were rettingit for rope making Hibiscus (probably esculentus) was also met with in the same localityunder similar conditions . This plant, the cultivated okro , is a tall , erect shrub, attaining a height of twelve feet or over , with a single, unbranched stem . The fibre is about 5ft . 6 in . long.

Hibiscus cannabinus ( till), the Deccan hemp of com merce , grows wild , and the fibre is used by the natives for rope-making. It is a tall, weedy shrub, 9 to 14 ft . in height . This plant could be extensivelygrown in the Mongalla province, the natives undertaking its culti vation, while the retting could be done by Government or private enterprise. Amongst other wild species of Hibiscus is Hibiscus sabalariffa ( locally karkadé), a tall , erect shrub yielding a good fibre known in com merce as Rozelle hemp .

Crotolaria striata also grows wild . It produces a good fibre of commercial length, and its cultivation offers no difficulty.

Kapok, the floss from the seed-pods of Eriodendron anfractuosum , so successfully exploited in the ex German African colonies as a plantation tree, could probably be grown to any extent in the Sudan south of about 12° north latitude . The fibre is used for upholstery, for making life-belts , and for many other purposes, and the wood for making pulp.

Sisal (A gave rigida) has been grown successfully from plants obtained from Eritrea. Neither copious irrigation nor a very rich soil is required for its culti vation .