THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



RATTANS AND THEIR USES. 



BY ARTHUR ROBOTTOM. 



One of the most useful of the many wild products of the Eastern forests 

 are the canes known as Rattans, which are now so largely imported and 

 used for a variety of economic purposes. It was only in the early part of 

 this century that the first importation took place, and it is but very 

 recently that they have formed any considerable item in the commerce of 

 the country. As comparatively little is known respecting the origin, 

 sources of supply, and general application of these canes, some few obser- 

 vations thereon may not be without general interest. 



The species of Calamus yielding the different kinds of rattan, or cane, 

 have little of the appearance of palms (although belonging to that family 

 of trees), as they are usually remarkable for their weak and trailing stems, 

 which often extend to a great length, and ascend the loftiest trees. It is 

 these long stems which, when divested of their sheathing leaves, form the 

 canes of commerce — some so much admired as sticks ; others for their flexi- 

 bility, conjoined with tenacity. These, when their smooth and -shining 

 dense outsides are separated in strips, are universally employed for caning 

 the bottoms of chairs, of couches, and for other articles. Some are occa- 

 sionally twisted into ropes, in the localities where they are indigenous ; but 

 they are more generally employed as canes and sticks, and for mat-making 

 and cane work, as their great strength allows of such narrow strips being 

 employed as to admit of large spaces being left, and thus enables strength to 

 be combined with lightness and free ventilation. 



The native who collects rattans proceeds into the forest with his parang, 

 or bill-hook, and cuts as much as he is able to carry away. His mode of 

 procedure is this : — He makes a notch in the tree at the root of which the 

 rattan is growing, and, cutting the latter, strips off a small portion of the 

 outer bark, and inserts the part that is peeled into the notch. The rattan 



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