March l, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE TECHNOLOGIST, 



THE PAPER-TREE OF SLAM (TON-KHAI), TROPHIS ASPERA, W. 



BY SIR ROBERT H. SCHOMBURGK, PH.D., P.R.S., ETC. 



At the present time, when the question from whence are we to get 

 the material for our supply of paper has become of some importance for 

 want of rags, the old legitimate substance for its manufacture, the descrip- 

 tion of this tree, and the manner in which its bark is prepared in Siam 

 into paper, may perhaps be of some interest. 



The quantity which is used as writing paper is far from insignificant. 

 For common purposes, the haberdasher, the grocer, and the huckster, 

 use the common yellow paper from China to wrap parcels in for their 

 customers, but for legal documents, letters, account books, &c, they are 

 written on Siamese paper. The Government authorities address their 

 officials upon the white Siamese paper of the size of one of our own 

 sheets of foolscap, not folded ; but for composing the draft of a letter, 01 

 to be used as a waste-book in commercial affairs, to write a tale, or 

 some poetic composition (offered for sale in stalls at the bazaar or talat), 

 then the Samut dam, composed of black paper, is used. But the Siamese 

 artist who illustrates the tale or an allegory, uses the white paper, and 

 upon it, rough as it appears, represents his objects in as vivid colours 

 as the Chinese do upon their soft rice paper. 



The crayons or pencils are prepared of carbonate of lime, or common 

 limestone, and the mass for black pencils is coloured with the coal pro- 

 duced by burning the sticks of a Cassia, which is likewise used for 

 colouring the black paper books. 



The King dictates or writes himself his despatches on the Samut 

 dam ; they are then given to one of the copyists, who are lying prostrate 

 before him, to transfer them on white paper with black crayons, and 

 they are then despatched to their destination. The usual size of the 



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