CAPE MASTIC. — PAPER AND RAGS IN CHINA. 29 



sold (roasted and grouud) at threepence per pound ! Should anyone doubt 

 this, let him remember that brown sugar, which frequently sells at this 

 price, is a manufactured article, produced at considerable cost, and brought 

 from countries many thousands of miles off, having to pay a duty besides ! 

 I do, then, earnestly recommend that a fair trial should be given to this 

 well-vouched for substitute for coffee ! 



CAPE MASTIC, 



BY L. PAPPE, M.D. 



Euryops multifidus, D. C, shrubby ; stem smooth ; very branchy. 

 Branches alternate, divaricating ; leaves glabrous, linear, entire at the 

 base, bifid or multifid above ; peduncles alternate, axillary, much longer 

 than the leaves, one-headed ; ligulse oblong, yellow ; achamia villose. 



From the stem and branches of this little shrub, which grows plentifully 

 near the Olifant's River, in the district of Clanwilliam, Cape of Good Hope, 

 exudes a yellowish semi-transparent resinous substance, which, in every 

 respect, resembles the Mastic of the Pharmacopoeia, and seems to possess 

 the same properties. The existence of this gummiferous shrub has 

 been known for many years, and was noticed by Mr. Burchell, who, in 

 his Travels I., p. 259, mentions it in these words : — 



" The inhabitants of the Roggeveld, when in want of resin, use as a 

 substitute a gum, which exudes from different shrubs, which they call 

 Harpuis-bosch (Resin-bush). Of this gum a considerable quantity may be 

 collected." 



In the present scarcity of Mastic it would be worth the trial to obtain a 

 quantity of this resin from the Cape, and ascertain whether it will answer 

 the purposes of the expensive and scarce resin. 



PAPER AND RAGS IN CHINA. 



BY D. J. MACGOWAN, M.D. 



The graceful and useful bamboo is the source of paper supply in China. 

 The paper made from its culms is sufficient to meet the demands of the 

 Chinese. It is, for the most part, of a quality unfit for European books and 

 newspapers. In some places the article is manufactured with such care as 

 to answer even for foreign writing-paper. The Anglo- Chinese newspapers, 

 however, find it best to import their material from England. The paper 

 mulberry also contributes to the paper demand in China, and so does 

 rice-straw. Do you ask what becomes of the cast-off, or, rather, fallen-off 



