506 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1774. 



Account of the Manner of Manufacturing the Hindostan Paper. By Lieut. 

 Col. Ironside, p. QQ. 



This useful plant, Lieut. Col. I. believes, is cultivated all over Hindostan. 

 The seeds are sown in July, before the rains begin; they should be sown near 

 to one another, to make the stem rise higher, more erect, with fewer branches, 

 and to increase the produce. It flowers in October, and is taken up in December. 

 The black ladies use the seeds, reduced to powder and mixed with oil, for their 

 hair, on a supposition that this composition will make their hair grow to a great 

 length, which they are very fond of. From the bark are made all kinds of rope, 

 packing cloths, nets, &c. and from these, when old, most of the paper, in this 

 country, is prepared; for these purposes, the fresh plant is steeped 4 days in 

 water, afterwards tried, and treated as the cannabis for hemp, to which it is 

 so similar when prepared, that Europeans generally suppose it to be the produce 

 of the same plant. 



As the substances, producing cloths, ropes, and paper, are few in present use, 

 this plant may perhaps be cultivated with advantage, in some of the British 

 West-India settlements, and in other countries destitute of hemp and flax. It 

 is not improbable, that it may be raised in the warmer climates of Europe, as it 

 ripens here in winter. He could not say, what soils it might refuse ; where he had 

 seen it, in the greatest plenty and perfection, had generally been on an earth 

 composed of clay, calcarious grit, and sand. There are other vegetable substances 

 used in Hindostan for the purpose of rope making; one of them is a species of 

 the hibiscus, a description of which he purposed for the subject of another 

 paper: he could scarcely doubt, but that it is only for want of experiments, we 

 had not a greater number of vegetables rendered useful in this manner. The 

 class monadelphia, of Linnaeus, promises fair for trials of this kind. 

 The Hindostan Method of manufacturing Paper. 



The manufacturer purchases old ropes, clothes, and nets, made from the sun 

 plant, and cuts them into small pieces, macerates them in water, for a few days, 

 generally 5, washes them in the river in a basket, and throws them into a jar 

 of water lodged in the ground; the water is strongly impregnated with a lixivium 

 of sedgi mutti* Q parts and quick lime 7 parts. After remaining in this state 8 

 or 10 days, they are again washed, and while wet, broken into fibres, by a 

 stamping lever, and then exposed to the sun, on a clean terrace, built for this 

 purpose; after which, they are again steeped, in a fresh lixivium, as before. 



1004. A figure of it is given by Ehret in Trew's Plant. Select, t. 47 ; and another in the Hort. 

 Malab. 9, p. 47, t. 26. Both these figures are good.— Orig. 



• Sedgi Mutti is an earth, containing a large portion of fossil alkali. The wTfof of the antients. 

 It is found in great plenty in this country, and universally used in washing, bleaching, soap-making, 

 and for various other purposes, — Orig. 



