Boehmeria, a genus of Urticaceæ (q.v.), of which two species, or rather what were formerly considered as two distinct species, have been from a remote period cultivated in the East. The Indian variety was called by Roxburgh Urtica tenacissima, and the Chinese one Boehmeria nivea by Gaudichaud. They are now distinguished as varieties, the one being called B. nivea and the other B. nivea, var. candicans. There are said to be other doubtful species. The fibre from Boehmeria has long been used in eastern countries for ropes and for cordage, and also for cloth in China and in Japan. This fibre is known in commerce as Rhea, as Ramie, or as China-grass, and if the most recent views of botanists as to the identity of several locally distinguished species of this plant which yields it be correct, it has a very wide range, being found in several parts of India, China, Japan, and the Eastern Archipelago generally. It has been successfully introduced into a number of foreign countries, including the Cape, Mauritius, Algeria, and the south of France; in America, California, Louisiana, and some of the West Indian Islands. It may be propagated by cuttings, which can be readily grown, by roots, or by suckers, and it thrives best in moist shady places in the tropics.
Rhea fibre of commerce, which is composed of the bast-fibres on the inner side of the bark of the plant, is difficult to separate in a state suitable for the manufacturer except by a somewhat costly process. Twice over, first in 1869 and again in 1877, the Indian government offered, besides smaller prizes, sums of £5000 for a machine which would prepare it economically, but with no satisfactory result.
In some respects rhea is the most remarkable of all known vegetable fibres. For fineness, strength, and lustre combined it excels any of them. It can be spun at least as fine as flax, is stronger, and has a more silky lustre. Jute has also this lustre, but it has neither the strength of rhea, nor its capability for bleaching and dyeing. Rhea has the additional advantage of being liker wool in its nature than other plant-fibres, and it can be used as a substitute for long-stapled wool. The knowledge of these valuable properties has, for twenty years past, stimulated an almost ceaseless activity among ingenious persons interested in textile manufactures, in order to discover some process by which the fibre could be prepared at a price that would make its extensive use remunerative.
The puyha fibre of the Himalayas is derived from B. Puya.