Note 74 — PART I
Reading edition
To these may be added the Abaca (Musa textilis), a species of plantain, from which the beautiful fibres are procured known by that name. This is becoming a very considerable article of exportation, both raw, and manufactured into cordage. The natives also consume large quantities of it in cordage, and as shirting cloth, into which a large portion of the interior and finer fibres are manufactured. Some of it is equal to the coarser sort of China grass cloth.74