In the face of these difficulties, however, the industry grew in India as well as in Dundee. For several years before the war, the quantity of raw jute fibre brought to Dundee and other British ports amounted to 200,000 tons. During the same period preceding the war, nearly 1,000,000 tons were exported to various countries, while the Indian annual consumption--due jointly to the home industry and the mills in the vicinity of Calcutta--reached the same huge total of one million tons. The growth of the jute industry in several parts of the world, and consequently its gradually increasing importance in regard to the production of yarns and cloth for various purposes, enables it to be ranked as one of the important industries in the textile group, and one which may perhaps attain a much more important position in the near future amongst our national manufacturing processes. As a matter of fact, at the present time, huge extensions are contemplated and actually taking place in India. CHAPTER II. CULTIVATION _Botanical and Physical Features of the Plant_. Jute fibre is obtained from two varieties of plants which appear to differ only in the shape of the fruit or seed vessel. Thus, the fruit of the variety _Corchorus Capsularis_ is enclosed in a capsule of approximately circular section, whereas the fruit of the variety _Corchorus Olitorius_ is contained in a pod. Both belong to the order _Tiliacea_, and are annuals cultivated mostly in Bengal and Assam. Other varieties are recorded, e.g. the _Corchorus Japonicus_ of Japan, and the _Corchorus Mompoxensis_ used in Panama for making a kind of tea, while one variety of jute plant is referred to in the book of job as the Jew's Mallow; this variety _C. Olitorius_, has been used in the East from time immemorial as a pot herb. The two main varieties _C. Capsularis_ and _C. Olilorius_ are cultivated in Bengal for the production of fibre, while for seed purposes, large tracts of land are cultivated in Assam, and the seeds exported for use principally in Mymensingh and Dacca. The above two varieties of the jute plant vary in height from 5 to 15 feet, and, in a normal season, reach maturity in about four months from the time of sowing. In some districts the stems of jute plants are sometimes rather dark in colour, but, in general, they are green or pink, and straight with a tendency to branch. The leaves are alternate on the stems, 4 to 5 inches in length, and about 1-1/2 inches in breadth with serrated edges. Pale yellow flowers spring from the axil (axilla) of the leaves, and there is an abundance of small seeds in the fruit which, as mentioned, is characteristic of the variety.