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CHAP. VI. 



PLANTS CURIOUS OR USEFUL IN THE ARTS, 

 SECTION I. 



Kadsi, or Paper-tree of Japan, 



Morus Papyrifera. Linn. 



A HE Morus or Mulberry genus contains seven species, mostly na- 

 tives of hot climates. Of these two are of great use in the arts : 

 Morus tinctoria, or fustic-wood, a fine American timber tree afford- 

 ing a principal ingredient in most of our yellow dyes, for which 

 purpose this material is an extensive object of commerce ; and 

 morus papyrifera, or kadsi of Japan, from which the ingenious na- 

 tives manufacture their beautiful and glossy paper. This tree is 

 also found in Otaheife and others of the Australasian or South Sea 

 Islands, where the bark is spun into the finest sort of cloth. It has 

 of late years been propagated from seeds in France, and in a sandy 

 soil, is said to thrive better than the common mulberry. Like the 

 last, its leaves are also an excellent food for the silk-worms. 



The following is the process pursued in Japan for converting the 

 bark of the kadsi into paper. Every year, when the leaves of the 

 paper-tree fall off, the young shoots are cut into sticks about three 

 feet long, and being tied up in bundles are boiled with water till the 

 bark shrinks from the wood. The sticks are then exposed to the 

 air till they grow cold, and being slit open length-ways, the bark is 

 taken off, dried, and carefully preserved. Afterward, being soaked 

 in water till it is soft, it is scraped, and the stronger bark, which is a 

 full year's growth, is separated from the thinner, which covered the 

 younger branches, the former yielding the best and whitest paper. 

 The bark being then cleansed from all knots and impurities, is boiled 

 in clear lye, and constantly stirred about till it becomes so tender, 

 that on being slightly touched, it will separate into small fibres. 

 The bark thus softened is washed in a river in sieves, and constantly 

 stirred about with the hands, till it is diluted into a soft delicate 

 wooly substance, and I hen put upon a thick, smooth, wooden table. 



