MATTING. While this term is usually employed to designate floor coverings made from reeds and fibrous grasses, it is a generic term which includes not only the commercial mattings for house floors, which are made in Eastern countries, but a much wider range of articles useful in the domestic economy and in other employments, such as screens and tatties, sleeping mats (used in India and the East), the matting employed by nurserymen for protect ing hotbeds and cold frames, and even some forms .of thatch. For the most part mattings are hand-woven, in the finer varieties the warp being cotton or other yarns and the filling the cuims of various sedges, reeds and grasses, an example being the familiar Japanese mattings of the house-furnishing stores. In the Russian bast mattings for nurserymen's use, bast of the linden tree is employed for both warp and filling, very coarsely woven or plaited. The roots of the Khus-Khus (Andropogon sguarro sus), a perermial grass of India, are woven into fragrant screens for open windows and also made into awnings. The Taika rush mats of Lormosa are famous as sleeping mats, and the best grades are said to be as fine and soft as cloth, resembling the best Panama hat weaving. Consul Davidson states that a mat of the high est grade, measuring 5 x 6 feet, requires the labor of a girl weaver 120 days, and such mats have sold for 60 to 70 yen (or about $40). The rush is an unidentified species, but sleeping mats arc made from several species of Cyperus and Scirpus found in Asia, Africa and other countries.
The commercial mattings used for house decorations are for the most part of Chinese and Japanese manufacture. In Japan two spe cies are employed, Juncos effusus, the Bingo-i mat rush, which is always manufactured into the costly mats used by the higher classes (and known as Tatamiomote) and Cyperus unitans, which is employed for the cheaper grades. The largest importer of these mats is the United States, England, Austria and Germany, follow ing in the order named. The qualities of the Bingo-i are named as follows: Kinkwanyen, manufactured at Okayama; first quality Aya mushiro, second quality Aya-Mushiro, Damask Aya-mushiro, common Aya-mushiro, manufac tured at Bittiro. First quality Somewake mushiro, common Somewake-mushiro, Damask Hana-mushiro, common Hana-mushiro, manu factured at Bingo; ordinary Hana-mushiro (best quality), manufactured at Chilcugo. Cy perus unitans produces the Shichito-i mats which are chiefly manufactured in the Oita pre fecture. The plant is cultivated both upon up land and irrigated lands. The varieties of mats from this species are known by names as follows: Kikaiori Hana-mushiro, Damask Hana-mushiro, common Hana-mushiro (two forms). Seidaka Hana-mushiro, manufactured
at Bungo. Mattings made from the two species above have leer> exported in a single year to the value of 650,000 yen, or over $400,000.
The Chinese and Korean mat rush is Cype rus tegetiformis, this species also being used for the manufacture of cuffs and sandals. The India commercial mattings are made chiefly from Cyperus corymbosus and tegetum; the latter being known as the Calcutta mat rush, while the former is used for the Tinnerelly mats which are the finest made in India. They are also made at l'aighat, hut these are not so fine. In the manufacture of the India mat tinr7 the calms are split into two or three parts and then woven into mats upon a warp of threads previously stretched across the floor of a room. The operator passes the calms with the hand alternately over and under the successive threads of the warp and presses them home.
It would be difficult to enumerate all of the mattings made in different countries, though mention should be made df the fine and highly prized Niihau mats of Hawaii, produced from Cyperus levigatus. Matting is made in Spain and Morocco from Juncos maritimus, and in Italy from henna acutus. Two species of sword rush, Lepidosperma gladiatum and L. flexuo sum, are used by the natives of Australia not only for mats, but for baskets and other articles, and Lepironica mucronata, found in Asia, Africa and Polynesia, supplies the fibre for the mats with which Chinese boatmen cover their cargoes.
In the United States, a handsome and utili tarian form of floor matting is largely manu factured from Slough grass, Carex filifornis. In normal years the imports of mattings to the United States reach a total of $3,250,000.
The University of California has recently been experimenting with several species of matting rushes, chiefly Juncus effusus, and J. robustus, from which a fine sample of matting has been manufactured at a factory in Maine. There is a possibility therefore that rush mat ting may be produced in the United States, com mercially, in the near future.
For matting fibres consult 'Dictionary Eco nomic Products of India,' 'Descriptive Cata logue of Useful Fiber Plants of the World,' and 'The Island of Formosa,' by Jas. W. Davidson. Consult also 'History and Manu facture of Floor Coverings' (New York 1898). The leaves of many species of palm, in different parts of the world, are used for native mats and mattings, though few of these ever reach commercial importance. See PALMS.