FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, 389 
ciency of fibrous material for paper-making (p. 80). The 
cultivated Cereals cannot well be turned to much account, for 
their straw forms the chief food for cattle; but as the country 
abounds with grass jungles, which are in the autumn of every 
year burnt down in order that the young blades may spring up 
and afford pasturage for cattle, it is evident that there are 
many situations where a sufficiency might be cut down before 
it has become perfectly dried up, and converted into half-stuff 
for paper-makers [as might also the refuse of the Sugar-cane]. 
Of the Sedges (p. 33) also some are, in India, employed for 
making ropes, as the Bhabhur or Eriophorum cannabinum, 
for making rope bridges for crossing some of the hill torrents. 
The Papyrus we know was used by the Egyptians for making 
their paper, but this was by cutting the material into thin 
slices and making these adhere together under pressure. But 
others of the genus, as the Cyperus tegetum, is used in India 
for mat-making. As these plants as well as Rushes grow to- 
gether in large quantities, it would be quite possible in many 
places to turn them to profitable account. 
Many parts of the world abound in the Lily- and Aloe-leaved 
plants which have been alluded to above, and of which the 
leaves contain much easily separable fibrous materials. These 
belong to the genera Agave, Aloe, Yucca, Sanseviera, Bromelia, 
and others, all of which abound in white-coloured fibres, ap- 
plicable to various useful purposes, and of which the tow might 
be used for paper-making, and considerable supplies obtained. 
Paper used to be made from the Sanseviera in Trichinopoly, 
and some has been made at Madras, of the unbleached Agave 
alone, and also mixed with old gunny bags. (pp, 37, 41, 51, 57.) 
[Recently, also, from the leaf of the Pandanus, p. 35.] 
[The Arrow-root (p. 60) and Ginger tribes (p. 61), con- 
taining such plants as those yielding the fecula called Arrow- 
root, Tous les Mois, Tikkur, &c., and Ginger, Turmeric, Car- 
damoms, &c., all have annual stems and leaves, which are the 
refuse of the present culture, and might yield an abundant 
supply of half-stuff.] 
Among cultivated plants there is probably nothing so well 
calculated to yield a large supply of material fit for making 
paper of almost every quality as the Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) 
(v. p. 61), so extensively cultivated in all tropical countries on 
