On the fibrous plants yielding the Grass-cloth of China. 209 
are all officinal. A long list of diseases are enumerated in which. 
the plant is efficacious, but these throw no other light on its prop-. 
erties than to suggest it. is comparatively inert. i is partly be-. — 
therefore more suitable. This may be owing either to the fact 
of the former being hot-pressed in a calender, (by which it is ren- 
dered compact and smooth, whilst the process to which the other ‘ 
is subjected for the same purpose, but partially affects it,) or to #° 
original differences in the fibres of European and Chinese linen. . 
Planting the seeds.—This takes place in May. Great care is 
first taken in the selection of seeds, and in the preparation of the 
E soil. The seed should be gathered on the appearance of frost, 
those produced from a recent root are the best. After being dried 
they are stowed away in a basket or jar mixed with sand, or dry 
earth, others say moist earth. The jar is then covered with straw 
to protect the seeds from the cold, as if exposed to its influence -...:. 
they yield an imperfect plant. Before planting, the seeds are ~ 
tested by immersion in water, those which float are to be reject- » 
_ those at the bottom plante . A loose dry soil is to be select- | 
, if near a canal or rivulet it is preferable. The ground isto be. He, m 
ail ploughed, and broken finely, manured, and then divided i in- * 
to beds about eight yards long, and one w wide ; the beds are: ‘to be. 
raked, and afterwards made compact witha hoe: After this’ it at a 
watered and left fora night: on the bac day tp and! he ¢ 
pressing down i is repeated. Pes bene pel o or three, 
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sans to sprout, and then ae in eis high ‘ar 
filled up. . ‘Just before the blades appear, a fi 
constructed over the beds, on which mats s 
protect them fro the: heat of ae nd 
- must be kept} and 
h ell w thenigb 
ld ‘be t Sart shin aor OL” 1 . 
ina. field’ Wed from eiry trees, about +o 
t:* It midy forks axborder to the ceralia and vegetables,» 
ing them “from the’ deprédations of domestic ayimals, al OE ae 
the Ma. ’ “ary. weather, ei field is i watered 
until. the seco 
