ON THE MUCILAGE OF HYDRANGEA 

 PANICULATA, SIEB. 



By 



Kametaro Ohaka. 



rcD 9 5 o t J o li m iz t^ X 



4- m m ± m 



In the manufacture of Japanese paper, a kind of mucilage from the stem of 

 Hydrangea paniadata, Sieb. is an indispensable substance. It is used to suspend 

 in the water the fibres of which Japanese paper is made, so as to arranije them in 

 a parallel order when they are taken out in a hand frame. '^ 



In Hokkaido, where the plant in question grows luxuriantly, people strip the 

 stems of their bark and cut the bast into thin slices. The mucilage obtained by 

 squeezing the well moistened slices is mixed with the water in which the beaten 

 fibres has already been steeped ; by this, the mucilage serves, as already been said, 

 to suspend the fibres in the water. 



For the purpose of examining where and how the plant has mucilage in store, 

 I collected several parts of the plant in the vicinity of Otaru, August, 1915. I 

 had also an o;)portunity, at the end of March, 1916, to take an observation of a 

 few old stem, 5-9 cm. in diameter, sent me by a member of the Yamakoshi Factory, 

 Sapporo. . 



On the examination of the hand section of the stem, it was found that the 

 mucilage produced from the ijlant is nothing but the contents of the crystal-con- 

 taining cells, which usually attain their full development in the bast of the .stem. 



A well-developed crystal-containing cell exceeds adjoing parenchymatous cells 

 two or tliree times in breadth. The thin membrance, which encloses the cell, 

 and the turgidity of the contents within make the cell expand and fill the inter- 



i) Saeki ; An opinion on the industry of Japanese paper, ([n Japanese) The journal of chemical 

 industry. Tokyo. 1903. 



[Trans, of Sapporo Natural History Soc. Vol. VI. Part 2. June, 1916.] 



