to restore flexibility, a process that also softened the lacebark by removing some naturally stiffening substances. The extracted netting would be stretched out—expanding the textile to at least five times its original width—and then bleached to a bright white through sun-drying. In Jamaica, harvesting was mainly carried out by men, while production of objects from lacebark was the prerogative of women. As a textile, lacebark is soft and may be readily dyed or stained. In 1883, the French naturalist Félix-Archimède Pouchet wrote that lacebark was "as fine as our muslin and even takes its place in the toilet of our ladies". Veils, shawls, dresses, aprons, caps, collars, frills, slippers, purses, and other clothing and accessories have been made of the fiber, mainly in the period from the late 17th to the late 19th centuries. There is evidence that it was routinely used in clothing worn by people from all ranks of society in Jamaica. The survival of a number of objects that are well over a hundred years old testifies to lacebark's durability as a material. Collections with lacebark items include Kew Gardens, the Pitt Rivers Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (U.K.), the Field Museum (U.S.), the Museum of Vancouver (Canada), and the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston. At least two monarchs of Great Britain have been given lacebark clothing: King Charles II, who received a cravat and ruffles of lacebark from Sir Thomas Lynch, then governor of Jamaica, and Queen Victoria, who was presented with a lacebark dress at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Lacebark has also been used in the manufacture of utilitarian items such as curtains, hammocks, rope, bridles, and whips. In the case of whips, the handle was usually made from a narrow tree branch with the outer bark still attached, while the whip tail was made from twisted or braided strands of lacebark extruding from the same branch. Lacebark whips were commonly used to punish slaves on Jamaica in the era before the abolition of slavery in 1833–34. The second half of the 19th century saw numerous appearances of lacebark items in industrial exhibitions, possibly because the British perceived a potential for expanded production in Jamaica. There were also some experiments in making paper out of lacebark. However, commercial-scale production never took off, and by the 1880s, most lacebark appears to have been shifted into the creation of tourist souvenirs such as doilies, fans, and