174 [Assembly 



Assuming therefore this nettle to be the plant yielding the fibre 

 from which the China grass cloth is manufactured — and we think 

 the details above referred to, if not actually confirming at least ren- 

 der it highly probable — it will be observed that we have the means 

 of providing the raw material very largely for export, should there 

 be any great demand for it on the part of the English manufacturers, 

 it is not unlikely, seeing that it has only been employed hitherto for 

 the most rough and common purposes, that there would be a little 

 diflficulty at the outset in preparing it in a manner fit for the man- 

 ufacturer's hands, but this would no doubt be readily overcome when 

 the cultivators learn that a superior mode of preparing the fibre will 

 make it more valuable, and give them a greater profit; under any 

 circumstances the subject is worthy of farther investigation on the 

 part of those interested in such matters. Tf we are able to obtain any 

 further particulars about it that may be relied on, we shall give 

 them publicity, being of opinion that the article may ere long be 

 generally employed for manufacturing purposes, and in that case it 

 were better if the plant be indigenous to any part of India, that it 

 should form an additional export article from hence, than that the 

 manufacturer should be dependent for it on a foreign country. 



