Again, the cells are modified to form fibers, such as tendon, muscle, and nerve.

All these tissues consist of a ground-substance, or matrix, cells, and fibers.

The ground-substance is in small amount in connective tissues proper, and is obscured by a mass of fibers.

The fibers are the white fibrous and the yellow elastic tissues.

These fibers may be found so interwoven as to form a sheet, as in the periosteum of the bone, the fasciæ around muscles, and the capsules of organs; or they may be aggregated into bundles and form rope-like bands, as in the ligaments of joints and the tendons of muscles.

The fibers of yellow elastic tissue are much stronger and coarser than those of the white.

It is these fibers which give elasticity to the skin and to the coats of the arteries.

This consists of bundles of delicate fibers interlacing and crossing one another, forming irregular spaces or meshes.

[Illustration: Fig. 8.Fibro-Cartilage Fibers.

Again, there is between the cells a meshwork of yellow elastic fibers, and this is called yellow fibro-cartilage (Fig.

The fibers of the only variety at hand clung to the seed as fast as the wool to the sheep's back.

35-37, 53.] Sea-island cotton, with its fibers often measuring more than two inches in length, had the advantages of easy detachment from its glossy black seed by squeezing it between a pair of simple rollers, and of a price for even its common grades ranging usually more than twice that of the upland staple.

"In a valley, centuries ago Grew a little fern-leaf, green and slender, Veining delicate and fibers tender; Waving when the wind crept down so low.

There came a thoughtful man Searching Nature's secrets, far and deep; From a fissure in a rocky steep He withdrew a stone, o'er which there ran Fairy pencilings, a quaint design, Veinings, leafage, fibers clear and fine, And the fern's life lay in every line!

"Fairy pencilings, a quaint design, Veinings, leafage, fibers clear and fine," quoted Ethel Blue softly, as she looked at them.

The speeds are so adjusted that the fibers are delivered to the first set of gills at a speed approximately equal to the speed at which these start their traverse.

These paces are of course regulated by the class and nature of the fibers under operation.

The delivery rollers, E, take off the fibers at a rate slightly exceeding that of the gills delivering it to them.

It thus often happens in this class of machines that a large percentage of the fibers are broken, and thus much waste is made.

Textile fibers & their use.

Long vegetable fibers.

The stalk of the plant is covered with a bark, or skin, containing fibers.

These fibers are spun into thread, which is woven into a cloth called linen.

Cards with teeth were arranged on the spinning wheel and the mass of cotton was combed through it to separate it into fibers.

The fibers were rolled between the fingers and then put upon the spinning wheel to be spun into thread.