359 
CHINESE CULTIVATION.— THE TCHOU MA, OR CHINESE FLAX 
(URTICA NIVEA). 
Translated from the Chinese, by M. Stanislas Julien, and retranslated from 
the French. 
[The following extract possesses much interest, in addition to what it derives 
from its Chinese origin, in consequence of its being not impossible 
that attempts may be made to introduce the cultivation of Tchou-ma 
into Great Britain. Its delicate fibre forms the Flax from which the 
finest of the Chinese linen fabrics are manufactured. ] 
Amongst the products of Chinese industry which were exhibited a few 
ears ago in the Rue St. Laurent, were some pieces of a fine silky tissue, 
called by the Chinese hia-pou or summer cloth, and made of the fibres of 
the plant called by botanists Urtica nivea, Some seeds of this plant were 
sent from Canton in 1843, by M. Hébert, but they never arrived; and I was 
at that time told that they would probably not grow in our climate. I am 
sorry that I was not then able to translate the papers which I now lay 
before the public. After reading the following account of the cultivation of 
the plant in question, it will be readily seen, by those who are competent 
judges of the matter, that the supposed want of success was owing to nothing 
but ignorance of the care and delicate treatment which are necessary for 
the culture of the plant now before us. The way in which its valuable 
threads are peeled, ‘steeped, and bleached, is, as will be seen, described by 
the Chinese authors, with a precision and minuteness amply sufficient to 
enable any person to pursue this new branch of industry in our own country. 
Until a new supply of seeds is received from China, roots or young plants of 
the Urtica nivea may be obtained from the Garden of Plants, and be pro- 
pagated in the way mentioned below; and thus may a substance be given 
to our manufacturers, which will, in their hands, be made into a tissue as 
soft as silk, and as fine as, but stronger and tougher than the best French 
cambric. 
Cultivation of the Tchou-ma (Urtica nivea). 
(‘Imperial Treatise of Chinese Agriculture,’ lib. Ixxviii, fol. 3.) 
For the purpose of sowing the ¢chou-ma in the third or fourth month, a 
light sandy soil is preferred. The seeds are sown in a garden, or where 
there is no garden, in a piece of ground near ariver or a well. The ground 
is dug once or twice, then beds one foot broad, and four feet long are made ; 
and after that the earth is again dug. The ground is then pressed down, 
either with the foot or the back of a spade. When it is a little firm, its sur- 
face is raked smooth. The next night the beds are watered, and on the 
following morning the earth is loosened with a small-toothed rake, and then 
“again levelled. 
After that half a ching (four pints and a half) of moist earth and a /o (one 
pint) of seeds are taken and well mixed together. One fo of seeds is enough 
for six or seven beds. After having sown the seeds it is not necessary that 
they should be covered with earth; indeed, if that were done, they would 
not germinate. ; 
The next thing to be done is to procure four sticks, sharp at one end, and 
to place them in the ground in a slanting position, two on one side of the 
bed and two on the opposite side; they are for the purpose of supporting a 
sort of little roof two or three feet high, and covered with a thin mat. : 
In the fifth or sixth month, when the rays of the sun are powerful, this. 
