Plate No. 129fabric
The coarse, strong bast fiber of sailcloth and canvas.
- First documented
- Antiquity
- Origin
- Central and East Asia, China
- Fiber
- hemp
- Weave
- bast fiber, woven into coarse strong cloth
- Family
- fibers
Plate No. 129 · fabric
Hemp
Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated fibers, a strong, coarse bast fiber stripped from the stalk of the hemp plant. Exceptionally durable and resistant to rot and salt water, it became the indispensable cloth of the age of sail, made into sailcloth, rope, rigging, and the canvas that takes its name from cannabis. It clothed working people and soldiers for millennia before cotton's rise, and it is enjoying a revival as a fast-growing, low-input crop. As a textile fiber hemp is closely related to flax, the plant behind linen, and the two cloths can be hard to tell apart.
Named for
From the Old English henep, from the same ancient root as the Greek kannabis.
Often confused with
Sources & References
- 1.Hemp, Wikipedia
- 2.Bast fibre, Wikipedia