ON THE SOURCES OF THE '' CHINA MATTING." 103 



have to be dyed before being woven. The usual colours are red, 

 green, yellow, and a very dark blue (also called brown and black). 

 Of these colours red is by far the most used. Of musters, plain 

 white is manufactured in greater quantities than all the others, 

 and checkered comes next; and, besides these, several hundred 

 fancy patterns are manufactured, in which the above colours are 

 applied in different proportions, the above order of colours giving 

 an idea to what extent they are in favour. These colours are pro- 

 duced in the following way : — For red, Sapan wood, cut up in 

 chips, is kept boiling one day in water (fifty pounds Sapan wood 

 to about one hundred and fifty gallons of water), in large wooden 

 tubs with iron bottoms. After the water is cooled it is poured into 

 earthern jars, and mixed with two pounds of alum to about forty 

 gallons of the decoction. In this solution the reeds are soaked 

 three times, six days each time, and dried after each immersion. 

 At the first soaking the dyeing solution is mixed with equal 

 quantities of pure water ; the second time with only one-third ; 

 and, at the thu'd bath, the solution is applied without mixing any 

 water. The whole process of dyeing red takes about three weeks. 

 For dyeing dark blue or black, the process is the same as with red ; 

 but being completed, the reeds have to undergo a fourth bath of 

 one day in the same solution, to which half a catty * of sulphate 

 of iron is added. For yellow, thirty catties of Sophora japonica f 

 are boiled in about one hundred and fifty gallons of water for one 

 day. When cooled the decoction is poured into smaller earthern 

 jars, and mixed with four pounds of alum to about forty gallons. 

 In this solution the reeds are bathed three times, three days each 

 time, and dried after each immersion. At the first and second 

 baths pure water is to be added in the same proportions as in 

 dyeing red. The whole process takes ten days. For green, one 

 tub (about forty gallons) of pure cold water is mixed with twenty- 

 four pounds of the leaves and tender twigs of the Lam-yip I (i. e., 

 Blue Leaf) plant, growing on the White Cloud Mountains, Honam 

 Island, and other plants of Kwang-tung, and belonging to the 

 natural order Acanthacece ; the mixture is kept so for eight days in 

 cold weather, or from three to four days in hot weather. After 

 this the leaves are taken out, and two pounds of alum added, 

 together with half a pound of sulphate of copper. The reeds are 

 soaked in this solution, the first time three days ; then dried and 



* One catty = li lb. 



+ Hirth says " probably the seeds;" but, unless I err, it is the dried flowers 

 which are used. 



I I endeavoured in vain to determine this for Dr. Hirth, but have never 

 been able to get a specimen in flower. I doubt its being wild on the "White 

 Cloud hills. Mr. Sampson and I only know it in cultivation for tinctorial pur- 

 poses, and under these circumstances it is invariably flowerless. It is quite 

 difi'erent from the " Kooin," Strobilanthes flaccidifolius, N. ab E., which is wild 

 in Southern China, and, though certainly Acanthaceous, I cannot, after com- 

 parison with the specimens in my herbarium, guess at the genus to which it 

 belongs. 



