NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 85 



the surrounding wood and cut into convenient lengths of a few inches, and 

 then, with a sharp and thin-bladed knife, it is opened out into sheets a few 

 inches square. Under moist pressure these then retain a permanent form 

 but a careful examination will always disclose the unequal thicknesses due 

 to the action of the knife. From the account thus presented, the parallelism 

 between papyrus and rice paper becomes very manifest. 



PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF RICE PAPER * 



Sir Joseph Hooker was the first to dispel the illusion that this 

 material is derived from rice, when he showed that it exhibits all the 

 characteristic features of the unaltered structure of the original pith from 

 which it was taken. A photograph of this paper, as seen under the micros- 

 cope, will not only enable us to appreciate the extent to which it differs 

 from ordinary paper, but it will at the same time show what is substantially 

 the interior structure of papyrus. 



TAPPA CLOTH 



Among the islands of the Pacific, interesting forms of primitive paper 

 or cloth may also be found, as illustrated in the tappa cloth of the Sandwich 

 Islanders, which they use for the manufacture of clothing. The material 

 employed is the very fibrous bark of the paper mulberry (Broussonnetia 

 papyrifera), which we shall presently find to acquire additional interest 

 from its use elsewhere. In the process of manufacture, the bark is simply 

 beaten out until the original fibres are brought into new relations and 

 to form a rough felt. 



Among the Japanese, as among the Chinese, various materials 

 have been employed for centuries in the manufacture of paper after 

 methods which are identical in principle with those so well known among 

 ourselves, and thus cotton and other easily -obtained fibres haw playe, 

 important part in their paper industry. Certain kinds of Japanese pape, 

 have lon/enjoyed a special reputation, both at home and abroad, for the, 

 fine texture/exceeding lightness and great strength, as_well as for th 



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which is macerated until the individual elements readriy separate under 



