PAPER MADE OF MULBERRY AND OF FIG-TREE BARK. 3843 
of their fruit, but still more for their leaves as food for the silk- 
worm. It is probable that most of the species of the genus 
Morus have bark of a sufficiently fibrous nature. But few, if 
any, seem to be turned to useful account. Yet the bark of the 
White Mulberry seems from very early times to have been 
made into paper in China; for Marco Poloinforms us that “the 
Grand Khan causes the bark to be stripped from those Mulberry 
trees, the leaves of which are used for feeding silk-worms, and 
takes from it that thin rind which lies between the coarse bark 
and the wood of the tree. This being steeped, and afterwards 
pounded in a mortar until reduced to a pulp, is made into 
paper, resembling that which is made from cotton.” This fact 
directs attention to the bush cultivation of the Mulberry in 
Bengal, for feeding silk-worms. This culture consists in 
planting cuttings of the Mulberry, which, as they grow, are cut 
down about four timés in the year, in order to produce young 
leaves for the successive broods of silk-worms. The countless 
number of shoots which are thus thrown away, or used as fuel, 
would probably, under the agency of the dhenkee, yield good 
half-stuff for the paper-maker. Mr. Henley, indeed, informs 
us that, before leaving India, he had produced very satisfactory 
specimens of half-stuff from the bark of these rejected stems. 
The bark separates when the cut stems are steeped in water, 
and when pounded up, the greater part of the mucilaginous 
matter passes off, leaving a mass, having much of the good 
qualities of linen rag half-stuff. 
The genus Ficus, celebrated for one of the species yielding 
the Fig, one of the most early cultivated of fruits, and another 
the Caoutchouc of Assam, while the Bur and the Peepul are, 
in India, two of the most highly esteemed of trees, is also 
a genus numerous in species which abound in all parts of India. 
It is probable that the bark of some of the species, like that of 
the Mulberry, may be converted into half-stuff, as Mr. Ostandje 
states that the bark of one of the species is used for paper- 
making in the Island of Ceylon. 
A stately forest tree, called Chandul, which has been placed 
here and called Lepurandra saccadora, is indigenous on the 
West side of India, as in the ravines at Kandalla and in the 
jungles near Coorg, where people manufacture sacks from the 
bark by a very simple process. A branch is cut, corresponding 
