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reached their destination, while the second was so imperfect, that 

 identification was impossible, and there has not been time for a 

 report on the last specimens I forwarded." 



I believe, among some, a certain amount of importance is 

 attached to the end of the cocoon at which reeling commences ; while 

 others, again, hold that the operation should start from the middle. 

 Experiments might be made in this direction, and results noted. 

 The mulberry on which the worm feeds is cultivated in the jail 

 garden, and is beyond doubt the Moms indica. It was flowering 

 when I saw it ; but the insignificance of its flowers had failed to 

 attract attention ; and the fact of its not producing fruit had evi- 

 dently led to the error that it did not flower. The cause of the tree 

 casting its flowers before the fruit forms, results from the fact of 

 its having been propagated from cuttings — a physiological pheno- 

 menon in plant-life, not alone restricted to trees of this or any 

 other variety in particular. The sugar-cane, when multiplied year 

 after year from cuttings, ceases to flower, while the seeds of the 

 Dalbergia sissoo, when grown from slips, are also barren. In Ran- 

 goon the Morus indica grows to the size of a small tree, and pro- 

 duces fruit abundantly. I was also shown the Broussonetia,* a 

 scandent shrub, on which the silk-worms are fed when the mul- 

 berry fails. It is the same shrub as is used in China for the ma- 

 nufacture of paper, and in Burma for the manufacture of a coarse 

 variety of the same material. Colonel Browne tells me this 

 plant grows in prolific abundance all over the district ; and I 



* Parabeik, wliicb. is the Burmese for this description of paper tablets, is made both 

 from the fibrous parts of the " wanet" variety of bamboo, and bark of the Broussonetia. 

 When the former is employed, the following is the process adopted : The bamboo is 

 cut into short lengths, and the knots discarded. The pieces are then stripped of their 

 outer bark and soaked in lime-water sufficiently long to separate the fibre into fine, 

 short filaments, when it is removed from the water and reduced to a pulp by pounding. 

 This pulp is now again steeped in a fresh solution of lime and water for a week, when 

 the fibrous matter is transferred to a large vessel of clean water, and is ready for moulding. 

 The mould consists of a square from two inches deep with a cloth bottom, varying in 

 size according to fancy. The manufacturer now dips his frame into the vessel containing 

 the pulp, and, by a backward and forward motion, distributes an equal layer of the pulp 

 on the bottom of the frame, which he lifts up, allowing the water to drain off through 

 the cloth, and places the frame in the sun to dry. When paper is required instead 

 of the Parabeik, the only difference in the process is regulating the thickness of the laye r 

 of pulp taken up. The system followed in the preparation of the Broussonetia paper is 

 exactly similar to the above, with the exception that the bark is thrown in the lime and 

 water, immediately it is stripped from the tree, and less time is required to reduce the 

 fibre to a pulp. There is both black and white Parabeik. The form is simply coloured 

 by steeping the tablets in a composition made from starch, the juice expressed from the 

 green leaves of the Dolichos fabceformis and charcoal powder of teak. After drying, 

 the tablets or paper are pressed and ready for use. 



When the paper is required to spread gold leaf, it is cut into three-inch squares and 

 subjected to a process of beating on a brass anvil, a little larger than the paper,with a 

 wooden mallet, which gives it the appearance of good oil-silk — this sells at Rs. 4 per 1,000. 



