The Cachet codic, TAM., are the stems of a creeper used for tying bundles and other purposes instead of twine. The Mandrong rushes of Province Wellesley grow spontaneously in the rice fields after the crop has been gathered, overspreading them like a second crop. Their fibre is strong, and is locally used in the manufacture of rice and sugar bags, mats, etc. • experiment may prove it to be adapted for the mandacture of paper. The Mang-kwang (Paridanus, sp.) is used for matting in Province Wellesley.
The Glam tree bark ia from the blelaleuea viridiflora, bialacca.
The Talee trap (Artocarpus, sp.) is used at Hassang for fishing-nets.
The Talee tares is of Singapore, and there is a bark used as twine in Siam.
7.'he Bark-cloth of Keda, in the Malay Peninsula, is manufactured by the Semang, an eastern Negro tribe ; and that of the Celebes (Kaili) is made from tho bark of the paper mulberry. lifr. Jaffrey, at the Madras Exhibition of 1857, exhibited a very powerful new bast from the Eriodendron anfractuosum.
A bast or nar from tho Acacia robusta, so common on tho Neilgherries, has been used for all purposes to which Russian bast is applied in gardens in Burope. The material is strong, tough, and durable, also pliable when wetted. This bast could bo procured cheaply and in largo quantities, as when the trees are cut down tho roots throw up numerous young shoots to the height of from 6 to 12 feet in ono year. The bark of this tree is also a. powerful tau.
The beautiful fabnc, China grass-cloth, is made in the Canton Province, and largely exported to Europe and America. The plant which is supposed to produce this, the Boehmeria nivea, is abundantly grown in the pro. vine° of Kiang.si. Fabrics of various degrees of fineness are made from this fibre, but none so fine as that made about Canton ; it is also spun into thread for sewing purposes, and is found to be very strong and durable. There are two very distinct varieties of this plant common in Che-kiang,—one the cultivated, the other the wild. The cultivated variety has larger leaves then the other ; on the upper side they are of a lighter green, and on the under they are much more downy. The stems also are lighter in colour, and the whole plant has a silky feel about it which the wild one wants. The wild variety grows plentifully on sloping banks, on city walls, and other old and ruinous buildings. It is not prized by the natives, who say its fibre is not se fine, and more broken and confused in Re structure, than the other kind. The cultivated kind yields three CrOpS year.
The preparation of the fibre is tedious, and is what causes tho difficulty of sending it at a cheaper rate into market. Dr. IlacGowan of Ningpo states that in China the last cutting is made in September, and from it the finest cloth is mule, the first being inferior, coarse and hard. On being cut, the leaves are carefully taken off ou the spot ; the stalks taken to the house and soaked in water for an hour. In cold weather the water
should be tepid. After this the plant is broken in the niiddle, by which the fibrous portion is loosened and raised from the stalk. Into the interstice thus made the operator thrusts the fingernails, and separates the fibre from the centre to one extremity and then to the other. The stripping process is very easy. The next process is scraping the hemp, to facilitate which the fibre is first soaked in wat,er. The strips of hemp are drawn over the blade of a small knife or scraper from within out wards, and, being pressed upon by the thumb, the fibrous portion of one surface, and the muciLsginous part of the other, are thus taken off. The hemp is then wiped dry, and the whitest selected for fine cloth. It it afterwards bleached.
The directions for peeling the Chu-ma or Tchou-rna, in China, as translated from the Chinese, are given as follows :—'1Vhen the sterns are all got in, they are split longitudinally with knives of iron or of bamboo. The bark is first removed, then the lower layer (which is white, and covered with a shrivelled pellicle, which comes off by itself) is scraped off with a knife. The interior fibres are then seen ; they are to be removed and softened in boiling water. If the Tchou-ina be peeled in winter; the stems must be previously steeped in tepid water, in order that they may be the more easily split. The first layer of Tchou-ma is coarse and hard, and is only good for making common materials; the second is a little moro supple. and fine ; the third, which is the best, is used for maloing extremely fine light articles.' 5fajor Hannay writes :—' Inen the stalks have become brown for about 6 inches above the roots, the top is seized with the left hand, and the leaves are stripped off by passing tho right hand to the ground, over which the stalk is cut. The outer bark has first to be scraped off with a blunt-edged knife, when the exposed fibre, still attached to the woody part of the stalk, is placed in the hot sun to dry. On the third morning, after being exposed to the dew for several hours, the fibre is drawn off. This is done by breaking the woody stalk right through towards the thicker end, and then separating the fibre therefrom, drawing it off slowly towards the small end, and repeating the process as often as necessary, though much of the fibre remains, and inafbe taken off at a second breaking.' (The fibres now require to be carefully washed. —11enley.) ' The hanks of fibre are then separately twisted at the upper end, and tied up in bundles. 1Then the threads are required for spinning, they are prepared by drawing the single hanks several times with a blunt-edged slip of bamboo held in the right hand, when they are easily opened out to the requtred fineness with the fingers and thumb nails. This is certainly a rude and tedious process.' Fibres of Sida tilirefolia and Dolichoe bulbosus furnish cloth of coaraer sorts than China gnus.