BARK DRESSES. 205 



obliged to cut notches in the trunk, in order to climb up the 

 tree; he had scarcely ascended five and twenty feet before he 

 was obliged to descend; he became very much swollen, and 

 was affected with vertigo, &c.; while another Javanese went 

 up the tree, as far as necessary without feeling any incon- 

 venience. Leschenault himself walked in the midst of the 

 broken branches of a tree which he had had cut down, and even 

 rubbed his face and hands with the juice (washing it off, 

 however, immediately), and he did not feel in the least in- 

 commoded by his experiment; so different are its effects upon 

 different individuals. 



ESTHER. 



Is there not some peculiarity in the bark of the antiar? 



Yes; the liber, or inner bark, is of a fibrous texture, like 

 that of the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyri/era), and, 

 when cleansed from its adhering particles, resembles coarse 

 linen. It has been worked into ropes, which are very strong, 

 and the poorer class of people employ the liber of the younger 

 trees (it being more easily prepared) for the purpose of mak- 

 ing a coarse stuff, which they wear when working in the 

 fields; but it requires much bruising, washing, and soaking, 

 before it can be used; and even when it appears to be com- 

 pletely purified, persons wearing this dress, on being exposed 

 to rain, are affected with an intolerable itching, which renders 

 their covering insupportable, a small portion of the gum still 

 adhering to the liber producing, when exposed to the wet, 

 this irritating effect. 



These bark dresses remind me of the beautiful lozenge- 

 shaped meshes of the liber of the Lace-bark tree {Daphne 

 lagetto), which has been actually worn as lace. Charles the 

 Second had a cravat made of it, which was presented to him 

 by Sir Thomas Lynch, when governor of Jamaica, of which 

 island (where it is used for ropes) it is a native, as it is also 

 of Hispaniola, where it is known by the name of boi.s dentelle. 

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