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China, and as there is much doubt regarding the various kinds of z% 
called hemp and jute in China, different products tpr T ‘ 
direction in which information is to be sought ; on the a it keee be 
of some service to the Som at any time that wish 
to have the subject gone into by his officers in China. The pag we is 
of re oe ee I should say, both on the commercial and 
scientific sid 
A.—The Plants producing Apni Fabrics in China. 
In Chinese the character Ma is En of plants producing textile 
fabrics ; and the following kinds are EE R both by colloquial 
book usage [Ma also includes certain plants the seeds of which are 
used for ek oil, and also certain herbs the foliage of which simulates 
gapi in appearance ; but with these we have at present nothing to 
öl: 
1. Ta Ma, of books ; Hsiao Ma, colloquially in North China, because 
there the castor-oil plant is spoken of as Ta Ma (“large Ma”), from 
| its aes Huo Ma colloquially in South China 
names indicate common or Russian hemp, the product of 
Shwiahis sativa, L 
So far as my experience in Hupeh goes, this plant is chiefly cultivated 
| there for the oil lstor its seeds, and for coarse fibres used in making 
cordage ; and is apparently used for making cloth or canvas, t 
in other Frivives a China it doubtless is manufactured into cloth, and 
information on this point is desira 
‘ 2. Ch‘ing Ma.—This is Abutilon hemp, the product of the plant 
known to botanists as Abutilon Avicenne, Gærtn. It is commonly 
cultivated in Hupeh and Szechwan, and is the greater Ped if not all, 
of the “hemp’ ’ passed through t the Ie hang Custom According to 
Bretschneider it is also cultivated in Chihli; and 7 have little doubt 
is what is passed Eeoa the Tientsin Customs as “ I 
pomt of this 1 I find in a Customs publication ‘that all ine hemp 
exported from Tientsin is called by Chinese Ch‘ing Ma, and by the 
foreign merchants “jute.” But seis is some confusion between this 
and the next article, as will be shown. 
3 - Huang Ma.—This is “ Att jute,” the product of Corchorus 
| capsularis, L. The plant is figured in Chinese books, and, according to 
the Vienna Exhibition Catalogue, its fibre is ex om Shanghai 
Loureiro mentions it for Canton, and Dr. Faber says it is cultivated in 
Szechwan under the name Pai Ma. in name is given in the Chinese 
Herbal, the Pén-ts‘ao as a synonym of Ch‘ing Ma; and it would seem, 
then, that Abutilon hemp and jute are liable to ‘be confused by the 
Chinese. Perhaps some of the [chang and some of the Tientsin export 
may be “ Indian jute.’ 
C Ma.—This is Boehmeria nivea, Hook. 
Mes a EST 
grass, out which mos the called Grasscloth (in Chinese 
| “ Hsia Pu”) is made. It is cultivated in Szechwan, Hupeh, Kiangsi, 
| d various other provinces e Kiukiang Trade Reports for 1 3, 
o p. and 1869, pp. 115, 118, give the information that the “ hemp” 
large quantity is locally woven into grasscl 
