156 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



The first marked improvement in British plat 

 consisted in interlacing straw previously split into fine 

 and similar strips ; the culm used for this purpose 

 in the infancy of the manufacture having been thick 

 and of unequal sizes, producing a very coarse and 

 uneven plat. From that period this branch of do- 

 mestic industry has increased rapidly in England. 

 Many other great improvements have been made in 

 the material and manufacture of this article since its 

 first introduction; and many are the varieties of 

 fancy straw plat which have, each in their turn for 

 a brief period, been adopted by those fickle patronesses 

 the votaries of fashion. 



All plats must, however, give place to that of Italy, 

 which is still considered superior to any other. Nu- 

 merous attempts have been made, at various times, to 

 equal the Italian plat ; but although this manufacture 

 is apparently so easy of imitation, yet perhaps neither 

 the French nor English have ever produced any 

 thing fully equal to the Italian hats of the best quality. 

 These are well known in trade as Leghorn straw, 

 so called from the port whence they are exported ; 

 but they are in reality manufactured throughout 

 Tuscany, and more especially in the vale of Arno, 

 where the female peasantry find full and profitable 

 employment in this occupation. At every cottage 

 door women and children are to be seen busily en- 

 gaged picking and platting straws ; and even when 

 taking their walks they generally continue the easy 

 work of platting. 



Besides the great consumption in Europe of this 

 well-known article, large quantities are sent to the 

 North American states. An intelligent traveller has 

 observed, on witnessing the Tuscan peasantry thus 

 occupied, that " the work produces at every step the 

 pleasing appearance of labour united to amusement, 

 of a toil in which childish play and childish gains 



