268 FOREST TREES. 



References— iTew Bulletin 1888, pp. 81—84. 

 Kv/rz. For. Fl. 464. 



This shrub or small tree is mostly confined to the 

 drier parts of the maidan, where it is not uncom- 

 monly found in scrub jungle and by the sides of 

 nullahs. It is plentiful in some parts of the 

 Bangalore Taluk, but seldom attains to more than 

 12 feet in height. Suitable for hedging, but very 

 slow of growth. Medicinal properties are attributed 

 to the root and milk-sap, the latter being considered 

 a good local remedy for sole heels and chapped 

 hands. The young twigs are used as tooth brushes, 

 while larger branches are stuck over the roofs of 

 houses to ward off lightning. But the chief com- 

 mercial value of the species is found in the bark, 

 from which considerable quantities of useful paper 

 is made in 8iam. It is the TonJchoi of that re- 

 gion, the industrial importance of which is fully 

 reported in the " Kew Bulletin " quoted at the head 

 of this paragraph. When paper-mills are established 

 in Mysore, it will be interesting to test the local 

 value of Mitli chekke, with a view to its possible 

 utihty -as a suitable material for the manufacture of 

 paper. 



Cultivation.— Local attempts to propagate the 

 species from seed have not been successful, but the 

 tree throws up numerous suckers, and with care 

 these can be transplanted during the rains. Growth 

 is somewhat slow. 



535 Broussonetia papyrifera, Vent. 



The paper-mulberry tree. This species is indi- 

 genous to China, Japan, and some of the Islands in 

 the Pacific, in which places it formerly ranked high 

 as a fibre plant, and afforded from its inner bark 

 the article known as Tapa cloth. But even in the 

 South Sea Islands the latter is now abandoned in 

 favor of cheap European fabrics of mostly gaudy 



