The genus _Hibiscus_, Linn. is very abundant in India. The bark of a certain species of this genus, especially of H. _Tiliaceus_ and H. _Cannabinus_, is now very extensively employed for making _cordage_, and might unquestionably have been used for making cloth[200]. [200] Cavanilles, Tab. 52, fig. 1, represents H. Cannabinus, the leaf of which is like that of hemp. Tab. 55, fig. 1, represents H. Tiliaceus, in the description of which we read “_cortice in funes ductili_;” and Cavanilles says, the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands (_Australium insularum_) use in their ships and boats ropes made from the bark. H. _Tiliaceus_ is also represented in Rheede’s Hort. Malabaricus (vol. i. fig. 30.). It grows about 15 feet high. Dr. Wallich (Cat. of Indian Woods, p. 18.) mentions two other species as used for making cordage from the bark. The late Mr. John Hare, who lived in India a long time, says, that a coarse kind of cloth, used for making sacks, &c., is now woven from Hibiscus bark. As a further evidence, that the _Molochina_ mentioned in the Periplus were made from the bark of the Hibiscus, we may refer to that admirable specimen of Eastern taste and ingenuity, the Sacontăla of the great Indian dramatist Calidāsa. Several passages of this poem make mention of the _Valcăla_, which the Sanscrit Lexicons, themselves of great antiquity, explain as meaning either bark, or a vesture made from it. We learn from Dr. Wallich, a celebrated Indian botanist, that many kinds of Hibiscus had this quality in an eminent degree, and, as their bark was in common use for making all kinds of cordage, it might undoubtedly be employed for weaving. The Sacontăla is of a date as ancient as the Periplus. Professor Von Bohlen (_Das alte Indien_, _vol._ ii. _p._ 477.) asserts, that the author Calidāsa certainly flourished as early as the first century B. C. Sir William Jones makes him older by several centuries. (_Works_, _vol._ vi. _p._ 206.) The place also agrees as well as the time. The Hibiscus Tiliaceus, according to Sir J. E. Smith, is “one of the most common trees in every part of the East Indies, thriving in all sorts of situations and soils, and cultivated for the sake of its shade even more than the beauty of its flowers, in towns and villages and by road-sides. A coarse cordage,” he adds, “is made of the bark; the wood is light and white, useful for small cabinet-work; the mucilage of the whole plant is applied to some medical purposes.” The Molochina, mentioned in the Periplus, were brought from Ozene and Tagara, and may have come from still further North. The hermitage, described in the drama, was at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and near the river Malina, and, according to the representations given by the poet, the Valcălas (translated by Sir W. Jones “_mantles of woven bark_,” and by Chézy, “_vêtemens d’écorce_”), were worn both by the hermits and by the beautiful Sacontăla, while she was their inmate[201].