172 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



15. Scirpiis maritimus, L., Jap. Suge. Hats and waterproof- 

 cloaks have been manufactured from this from the remotest times, 

 as well as ropes for fastening rafters together in hut-building. 

 The former use was known also to Kaempfer, for he writes in 

 " Amoen. exot," p. 900 : " Setz, vulgo Suge. Herba palustris, foliis 

 arundinaceis brevioribus tensis, ex quibus ad albedinem redactis 

 construuntur elegantissimi pilei, quibus teguntur deambulantes 

 foeminse." 



16. The leaves of Zoysia pimgeris, Willd., Jap. Shiba and Iwa- 

 shiba, used to be employed in making the Mino, or old grass- 

 mantles. The long root-leaves of this grass were gathered in the 

 mountain-forests, taken home and steeped in boiling water, then 

 bleached and dried and beaten with mallets, and finally strung 

 close together with threads. Lying one above another like shingles 

 on a roof, these strings of leaves remind one of the way the Maoris 

 of New Zealand prepared their clothes from the much broader 

 leaves of the Phormmm tenax. These Mino were made from 

 various kinds of reed-grass, too, and from hemp-bast. They are 

 still met with, occasionally, in mountain districts. Waterproof 

 cloaks of oiled bast-paper, and more especially, in recent times, 

 umbrellas, have supplanted them. 



17. Imperata arundinacea, Cyrill. {Sacchanim spicatum, Thunb.), 

 Jap. Chi-kaya or Kaya, now utilized similarly, serving also in olden 

 times as a thatch, a use still found in mountainous districts. 



18. Phragrnites comiminis, Trim. {Aru7ido phraginites, L.). This 

 is a species of sedge-grass, which, together with the related species 

 P. Roxburgii, Kunth., the Japanese call Yoshi. It grows in abun- 

 dance on uncultivated, swampy spots, especially along the canals 

 that irrigate the rice-fields. It is used chiefly for thatching, though 

 also for making Yoshi-dzu, or sedge-mats. Like the species next 

 enumerated, it is planted here and there, in wet soil, for these 

 purposes. 



19. Eiilalia japonica^ Trim. {Eriant/ms japoniais, Beau v., Sac- 

 charum polydactylon^ Thunb.), Jap. Susuki. Many a lover of the 

 creations of Japanese art has noticed copies of this beautiful 

 grass, with its digitate panicle. But in recent times we have often 

 seen living specimens of it, for it has proved to be less se^isitive 

 than South American pampas-grass, though producing a precisely 

 similar effect when planted here and there on a fine, closely 

 shaven lawn. Besides the simple normal form, it appears also 

 with gaily coloured leaves, sometimes striped diagonally {Eidalia 

 jap. zebrind). In its habitat it is widely distributed. It grows 

 principally on the Hara, those extensive grassy mountain-slopes, 

 but in uncultivated spots in swampy lowlands too. Here, and in 

 the fields regularly planted with it, pheasants and snipe love to 

 hide in the thicket made by its dead blades and leaves in autumn 

 and winter, just as they do in common sedge. 



20. Wicker-work of more solid wooden material is made of 



