MATTING, a general term embracing many coarse woven or plaited fibrous materials used for covering floors or furniture, for hanging as screens, for wrapping up heavy merchandise and for other miscellaneous purposes. Perforated and otherwise pre pared rubber, as well as wire-woven material, are also largely utilized for door and floor mats.
In the United Kingdom, under the name of "coir" matting, a large amount of a coarse kind of carpet is made from coconut fibre; and the same material, as well as strips of cane, Manila hemp, various grasses and rushes, is largely employed in various forms for making door mats. Large quantities of the coconut fibre (see Coco-NuT PALM) are woven in heavy looms, then cut up into various sizes, and finally bound round the edges by a kind of rope made from the same material. The mats may be of one colour only, or they may be made of different colours and in different designs. Sometimes the names of institutions are intro duced into the mats. Another type of mat is made exclusively from the above-mentioned rope by arranging alternate layers in sinuous and straight paths, and then stitching the parts together. It is also largely used for the outer covering of ships' fenders. Matting of various kinds is very extensively employed throughout India for floor coverings, the bottoms of bedsteads, fans and fly-flaps, etc. ; and a considerable export trade in such manufac tures is carried on.
The materials used are numerous ; but the principal substances are straw, the bulrushes Typha elephantina and T. angustifolia, leaves of the date palm (Phoenix sylvestris), of the dwarf palm (Chamaerops Ritchiana), of the Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) and of the screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), the munja or munj grass (Saccharum Munja) and allied grasses, and the mat grasses Cyperus textilis and C. Pangorei, from the last of which the well known Palghat mats of the Madras presidency are made. Many of these Indian grass-mats are admirable examples of elegant design, and the colours in which they are woven are rich, harmo nious and effective in the highest degree. Several useful house hold articles are made from the different kinds of grasses. The
grasses are dyed in all shades and plaited to form attractive designs suitable for the purposes to which they are to be applied. This class of work obtains in India, Japan and other Eastern countries. Vast quantities of coarse matting used for packing furniture, heavy and coarse goods, flax and other plants, etc., are made in Russia from the bast or inner bark of the lime tree. This industry centres in the great forest Governments of Viatka, Nijni-Novgorod, Kostroma, Kazan, Perm and Simbirsk. (T. \V.) MATTO GROSSO, an inland State of Brazil, bounded N. by Amazonas and Para, E. by Goyaz, Minas Geraes, Sao Paulo and Parana, S. by Paraguay and S.W. and W. by Bolivia. It ranks next to Amazonas in size, its area, which is largely unsettled and unexplored, being 570,138 sq.m., and its population (con taining many Indians) est. 349,857 in 1930. The greater part of the State belongs to the western extension of the Brazilian plateau, across which runs the watershed which separates the drainage basins of the Amazon and La Plata. This elevated region is known as the plateau of Matto Grosso, and its eleva tions so far as known rarely exceed 3,00o feet. The northern slope of this great plateau is drained by the Araguaya-Tocantins, Tapajos, and Guapore-Mamore-Madeira, all of which except the first, empty into the Amazon; the southern slope drains through a multitude of streams flowing into the Parana and Paraguay. The general elevation in the south part of the State is much lower, and large areas bordering the Paraguay are swampy plains.
The lowland elevations in this part of the State range from 30o to 400 f t. above sea-level, the climate is hot, humid and unhealthful, and the conditions for permanent settlement are apparently unfavourable. On the highlands, however, which con tain extensive open cameos, the climate, thougL dry and hot, is considered healthful. The basins of the Parana and Paraguay are separated by low mountain ranges extending north from the sierras of Paraguay. The resources of Matto Grosso are practically undeveloped, owing to the isolated situation of the State, the costs of transportation and the small population.