RATON, ra-ton', N. Mex., city, county-seat of Colfax County, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, about 130 miles northeast of Santa Fe and eight miles south of the north ern boundary of the State. In the vicinity are extensive coal fields. It is the commercial and industrial centre of a large region devoted chiefly to farming and stock raising. It has railroad shops, stock-yards, grain elevators, wholesale houses and brick and lumber yards. Pop. 4,539.
RATTAN, a product of Calcium: rotang, a scandent palm of Ceylon, but also found in India and Burma. While this species furnishes the best commercial rattan, there are about 200 species in this genus, inhabiting trop ical and subtropical Asia, Africa and Australia. The most important species other than the above are C. rodenturs,.C. pachystemonus and C. radiatus abounding throughout the damp forests of Ceylon up to 3,500 feet elevation. C. rotang and the first two species named above are manufactured into a great variety of useful articles such as baskets, chairs, the hoods of carts, and when split into strips can be twisted into cordage of great strength. C. rotang is often used in Eastern countries for rope bridges, or, used entire, is stretched rivers as the supports of suspension bridges; and is also employed' for the manufacture of Malacca canes. In China rattan is a favorite material
for cordage, and the material also enters into the manufacture of umbrella handles and ribs, and as.a substitute for whalebone. The cane is used for saddlery and harness and for wicker work helmets, said to be sword-proof. The two smaller species (C. pachystentanus and C. radiatus) are largely employed in the mans facture of baskets for the Ceylon tea gardens, used in picking the tea leaves. C. radiator supplies the material for chair bottoms, being split into thin strips. In fact the many uses of rattan in Eastern countries are almost nameless. In the United States rattan is largely used for manufacturing chairs and other furniture, for chair-seating, baby-carriage bodies, baskets, floor mattings, brooms, corset-stays, whips and many other uses of minor importance. The used in raffia fancy-basket manufacture is the. split inner portion of rattan dressed In cylindrical form like the true reeds. See also FIBRE.