THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Feb. 1, 1865. 



310 ON THE BOTANICAL ORIGIN OF GAMBOGE. 



is now returned to the fulling house for the purpose of heing milled ; in 

 other words, felting it by reducing it from about thirty-six inches in 

 width to twenty-eight. The machines used are the French mills, not 

 stocks. Steam has been recently introduced, and we were informed the 

 cloth so milled is considerably improved. In this building steam is 

 conveyed from the boiler and used for all purposes, such as boiling 

 water, melting soap, preparing other ingredients used. After being 

 milled to the required width, it is scoured for the last time, and again 

 subjected for the second time to the action of the gig mill. When raised 

 with a nap resembling a very fine blanket, it is dried on the tenters, 

 consisting of a strong frame of wood, having hooks top and bottom, the 

 lower bar being movable so as to make the width whatever may be the 

 number of inches required. The next process it goes through is being 

 brushed, laying the nap perfectly smooth ; the machine used is a very 

 powerful one, and has steam attached to it ; thence to the cutter, a very 

 ingenious machine, whereby the cloth is shorn. It consists of spiral 

 blades fitted to a cylinder revolving at great speed ; and as the cloth 

 passes under and over two plates called ledger blades, every fibre is regu- 

 larly shorn. This operation requires great attention and exactness in 

 the adjustment of the machines, and it was surprising to see the 

 quantity ol flock so cut off. To all appearance it was so much waste, 

 but it is used, when new cards are put on the machines, to strengthen 

 the wires. Saddlers use it largely for stuffing saddles and harness, and 

 it makes most excellent beds and pillows. Leaving the cutter, the cloth 

 is steamed and brushed, and then passes to the press -house, where it is 

 folded between mill boards aud hot pressed, taken out the next day, 

 turned, and undergoes a similar operation, when it is measured and 

 rolled, and ready for delivery. 



The above is a brief general outline of the various processes through 

 which wool passes from the raw material to a bale of cloth, and in so 

 doing the time occupied is about four to six weeks. 



ON THE BOTANICAL ORIGIN OF GAMBOGE. 



BY DANIEL HANBURT, F.L.S. 



The botanical origin of Gamboge has been long involved in some 

 obscurity, for although the drug was evidently produced by a plant of 

 the genus Garcinia it has not until recently been possible, for want of 

 good specimens, to determine the species. 



Hermann, a Dutch naturalist of the seventeenth century, who resided 

 in Ceylon, referred the origin of gamboge to two plants, one of which 

 is known to modern botanists as Garcinia Morella, the other as G. 



