100 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



flexible paper. The strips were united by overlaying the edges and beating them 

 together. There were several qualities of kapa, some so tine as to resemble muslin, 

 and other kinds very thick and tough, -which appeared like -wash leather. It was 

 bleached white or stained with vegetable or mineral dyes, impressed with bamboo 

 stamps in a great variety of patterns and colors, and glazed with a kind of gum or 

 resin. Nothing like a loom was known in Polynesia. The dress of the women con- 

 sisted of the pa-u, a wrapper composed of five thicknesses of kapa, about 4 yards 

 long and 3 or feet wide, passed several times around the waist and extending below 

 the knee, while that of the men was the malo or girdle, which was about a foot wide 

 and 3 or 4 yards long. The kihei or mantle, about 6 feet square, was occasionally 

 worn by both sexes. It was worn by the men by tying two corners of the same side 

 together so that the knot rested on one shoulder, and by the women as a long shawl. 

 In general, this paper cloth would not bear washing and lasted only a few weeks. 

 The kapa moe or sleeping lapa was made of five layers of common Jcapa, 3 or 4 yards 

 square. The outside piece (lilohana) was stained or painted with vegetable dyes.'' 



In Japan a kind of cloth is made from paper derived from this tree. It is cut into 

 thin strips, which are twisted together and spooled, to be used in the woof of the 

 fabric, while the warp is composed of silk or hemp. About 250 pieces only are 

 manufactured at the principal manufacturing place. The paper mulberry grows 

 everywhere in Japan, and is a valuable tree as furnishing the hast from which a 

 large portion of the Japanese paper is made. The plants are reproduced in quantity 

 by subdividing the roots, and in two or three years are ready to he cut. This work 

 is done in November, and the branches (7 to 10 feet long) are made up iuto bundles 

 3 or 4 feet in length, and steamed, so that the bark is loosened and can be more readily 

 stripped off. This is washed, dried, and then again soaked in water and scraped 

 with a knife to remove the outer skin, which is used for inferior kinds of paper. 

 The bast when cleaned is washed, repeatedly kneaded in clean water, and rinsed. 

 It is then bleached in the sun until sufficiently white, after which it is boiled in a 

 lye, chiefly of buckwheat ashes, to remove all gummy matters. The fibers are now 

 readily separated, and are transformed into pulp by beating with wooden mallets. 

 The pulp is mixed in vats with the necessary quantity of water, to which is added 

 a milky substance prepared from rice flour and the gummy infusion of the bark of 

 Hydrangea paniculata, or the root of Hibiscus manihot. The couches on which the 

 paper sheets are produced are made of bamboo, split into very thin sticks, and 

 united in paralleled lines by silk or hemp threads, so as to form a kind of mat. This 

 is laid upon a wooden frame and the apparatus dipped into the vat. raised, and 

 shaken so as to spread the pulp evenly, after which the cover is first removed, then 

 the bamboo couch with the sheet of paper, and in returning the operative lays the 

 sheet upon the others. When a number of sheets have thus been prepared they are 

 pressed to exclude the water, and afterwards spread out with a brush upon boards 

 and allowed to dry. The sheets are only about 2 feet in length, but sometimes sheets 

 10 feet long are produced. (From a report by the Japanese commissioners to the 

 Phil. Int. Exh., 1876.) 



The topographical features fit for the plant is a sloping place facing southeast, so 

 as to receive the full light of the sun and protected from high wind. The suitable 

 soil is gravel loam, or vegetable mold or yellow loam with some gravel. The prop- 

 agation is done either by planting divisions of old roots, layerings, cuttings, or 

 seeds; but the most common method is the first mentioned. This is performed in 

 March, digging off young shoots from the old stubble, which is well manured, once 

 in the previous winter and again early in the spring, and the land is hand hoed at 

 the same time. The young shoots, with some rootlets, are cut to the length of about 

 1 foot and planted in rows of about 2i feet wide, at an interval of about 3 inches, 

 leaving the top about 2 inches above the ground, manured with some liquid manure, 

 and covered with straw to prevent burning by the sun. And when the buds come out 

 at the beginning of June the covering of straw is taken off and watering is repeated 

 several times according to need. "Weak branches, which come out in abundance, are 



