186 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Australia, in the hope that this may eventually be- 

 come an article of profitable commerce between Eng- 

 land and her dependencies. It has been found that 

 there are many different kinds of trees, both in the 

 east and west, which produce a superior and stronger 

 extract than that obtained from oak bark. The 

 mimosa catechu has been already brought forward as 

 an example. The red mangrove, which we have 

 already mentioned, is another tree indigenous to both 

 Asia and America, which might be profitably employed 

 in our preparation of leather. It is used for this pur- 

 pose, not only in many parts of the West Indies, but 

 in Hindostan* ; and it is said to be a most excellent 

 material for tanning, performing its office more per- 

 fectly in six weeks than oak bark does in ten, and 

 producing a leather more firm and durable. 



Dr. Howison, believing that an extract of this 

 bark might be advantageously employed in England, 

 took much trouble in preparing a quantity, which, 

 some years ago, he sent as a specimen to this country. 



The Mangrove, or Rhizophora, grows to the 

 height of forty or fifty feet : its only congenial situa- 

 tions are in water, arid on the banks of rivers where 

 the tide flows. It is an evergreen growing in a very 

 peculiar and picturesque manner. From the lowest 

 branches issue long roots, which hang down into 



* In the time of M. Polo, and even so late as 1583, Guzerat 

 and the country between that place and the Indus were the seats 

 of considerable leather manufactories. They dressed the skins of 

 "wild oxen, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, goats, and other animals, and 

 exported 1 tliem to Arabia. Though the export trade has failed, 

 a good deal of leather of different kinds is still prepared in the 

 central parts of the Indian peninsula. The processes (some of 

 which are very ingenious) used by the natives in tanning, dress- 

 ing, and dying the skins of goats and sheep, and the hides of 

 oxen and buffaloes, are minutely described in Dr. Buchanan's 

 Travels. 



