T4 
Swatow, where it is made into-the kind of grass-cloth distinguished as 
** ong-lai-ko. 
3. Jute (Corchorus capsularis), the fibre of which is known to 
Europeans in China as “hemp skin," a too literal translation of the 
Chinese * ma-pá." “Ma” is generic for textile fibres, “pi” is 
* bark," referring to the outer bark of the plant, which is stripped off in 
long ribbons. Owing to the different preparation of the plant in China 
and in India the products look very different. The so-called “ hemp 
bags” of customs returns are made out of this coarse Chinese jute, 
which is also used for making rope and string of inferior quality. The 
jute is worth from 2 to 4 dollars a picul 
Corch olitorius, so allied species, which is readily ms ao pe 
by its long narrow fruit, that of C. capsularis being globular, oceu 
Formosa as a weed, and’ I’ have ‘not iecertailiud that its fibre is ever 
used. 
It may be here noted that the so-called 'l'ien-tsin jute is the product. 
of Abutilon Avicenne, and should be named * Abutilon hemp." T 
have seen true or Russian hemp, the product us ice ie sativa, the 
* huo-ma ” of the Chinese, from Newchwang this plant is more 
cultivated in: China for the oil from the seeds t bin: für the fibre; and of 
flax ene’ — which is cultivated in North- western 
China, the e may be sai «.. Oceasionally small quantities of a fabrie 
named “ dde ai ma pu,” are brought to 'l'ien-tsin, and this is doubtless 
linen, but I have seen no specimen, and merely infer from the name. 
The fabric jun, n parce to me as a kind of grass ki 
ax is * hu-ma," and the seeds are for sale in drug 
* Savage cloth "is. a d applied to at least three different kinds of 
coarse unbleached fabrics made by the savages. The kind made near 
Tamsui is of China grass, but whether from wild or cultiv ated plants of 
Boehmeria nivea I am not certain. The wild plant is very common, 
and has a coarser fibre. In the Kalee Mountains “savage cloth” is 
made out of the inner bark of the roots of small wild mulberry trees: 
doubtless a variety of the very variable Morus alba. I have sent 
Miete of plant, root, fibre, and cloth to the Kew Museum e- 
ags (^ bang-teh "), very serviceable, are also made out of this fibre by 
pe savages, while similar ones are made out of China grass by 
Chinese and Pepohuan. A third kind of “savage cloth” is made from 
the inner bark of Legion pumice known in Formosa as the 
“ch‘ing-t‘ung” tree. I have not been able to get specimens of either 
fibre or r cloth in Pie A but specimen fibre, and shoes made out of 
it, from Hupe eh, have been sent by me to Kew. ‘This tree has 
utilized for its fibre from odaia — Fun the product is coarse, and 
only suitable for making shoes, ropes, 
Mr. Hosie mentions a fourth kind of * savage cloth," mp out of 
banana fibre, but there is no certain information to hand about this. 
* Dye yam,” the large and dark red tuber of Dioscorea ione, 
Oliver, a wild yam occurring in the southern mountains of Formosa. 
These tubers are locally us sed. by the fishermen for dyeing and tanning 
their nets reddish, brown; occasionally also their clothes are dyed 
similarly.: The tubers are cut up into small pieces and put into large 
vats of water placed on a fire; the resulting red decoction is the dyeing 
liquid. 'The plant occurs in Hong Kong, and was first collected by 
Mr. Ford, who afterwards, on his trip up the West River, ascertained 
that the tubers so much used in the Kwang Tung Province were the 
produet of this plant. It oceurs also wild in Kwang-hsi and Tonquin, 
and enormous quantities are sent from the French colony into China by 
