3. P. I.— 55. S. P. I. D.— 32. 



THREE NEW PLANT INTRODUCTIONS FROM JAPAN. 



MITSTJMATA, A JAPANESE PAPER PLANT. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The facts for this paper were collected during- a four months' stay 

 in Japan, and represent work accomplished b} r Mr. Barbour Lathrop's 

 third expedition in search of valuable seeds and plants. 



It is hoped that the introduction of this new Japanese paper plant 

 and its ultimate culture in the warmer parts of the United States will 

 be encouraged by this brief account of its cultivation in Japan, for 

 the production of an} r of the Japanese bark papers, which are for 

 many purposes much superior to our own, will be a material addition 

 to the wealth of the country and give the cultivators of the South a 

 new crop of value. 



Japanese napkins, umbrellas, and lanterns have taught the Occi- 

 dentals new uses of paper, though the lesson has been but half 

 learned. 



The papers employed by the common people of Japan are immeas- 

 urably more varied than with us. Thej^ form one of the important 

 economies in the life of the peasant, and it is such ingenious uses of 

 plant material as this employment of the bark of a shrub that makes 

 it possible for 42,000,000 Japanese to live on the productions of a cul- 

 tivated area about one-third the size of the State of Illinois. 



The walls of the Japanese houses are wooden frames covered with 

 thin paper which keeps out the wind but lets in the light, and when 

 one compares these paper-walled "doll houses "with the gloomy bam- 

 boo cabins of the inhabitants of the island of Java, or the small- 

 windowed huts of our forefathers, he realizes that, without glass and 

 in a rainy climate, these ingenious people have solved in a remarkable 

 way the problem of lighting their dwellings and, at least in a meas- 

 ure, of keeping out the cold. 



Their oiled papers are another important element in the peasant life 

 of the Japanese, and are astonishingly cheap and durable. As a cover 

 for his load of tea when a rain storm overtakes him, the Japanese 

 farmer spreads over it a tough, pliable cover of oiled paper, which is 

 almost as impervious as tarpaulin and as light as gossamer. He has 



9 



