Bowstring Hemp

Bowstring Hemp, or MOORVA, is the fibre of a species of Sansevieria (especially S. Zeylanica), a plant of the natural order Liliaceæ (q.v.), tribe Hemerocallæe, used for making bowstrings in the East Indies. The fibre is hair-like and silky, elastic, and in strength apparently about equal to hemp. It does not rot in water so soon as hemp.—A very similar species (S. guineensis) is found in abundance on the west coast of Africa, and its fibre has been imported as African Bowstring Hemp.