16 THREE NEW PLANT INTRODUCTIONS. 
stick being stuck through a hole in the lever and the other lodged ina © 
hole through the floor. The workman then sits on the long end of the 
lever and teeters until the roll of papers, which was originally about 18 
inches long, is reduced to not more than 12 inches. He then removes 
the roll, undoes it, spreads out the papers, again arranges his dry sheets, 
and prepares another roll for the lever, inserting the same papers in a 
different position. Eight times he subjects the papers to this wrinkling 
process, and each time they become smaller, thicker, and more pliable 
until, after the last wrinkling, the cardboard is as soft and limp asa 
bit of muslin. 
Once through the wrinkler, the paper is given a coating of oil made 
from the seed of a labiate (Peril/a ocymoides) and hung out to dry. | 
For over a hundred days it is hung in the open air to allow the oil to 
harden, and even two hundred days are sometimes required to finish 
this part of the process. After being once dried out the piece of — 
wrinkled oil paper can be treated in almost any way—shaved or scraped ~ 
with a sharp knife, stamped or beaten with dies or patterns, or givena — 
coat of lacquer varnish. If colored papers are required, the pigments — 
are applied before the oiling process. f 
Although these remarkable papers are used now almost exclusively — 
for tobacco and other pouches, there are other uses to which the — 
inventive American mind can put them, such as book covers, port- — 
folios, table covers, etc., and the writer is of opinion that, should they — 
once be available to the common people, many new and important — 
applications for them would be found. z 
A similar form of these leather papers is the Japanese handmade — 
wall paper, which is already becoming fashionable in America. Large — 
factories are running near Tokyo which turn out the most beautiful — 
designs for wall and ceiling decoration. These wall papers are 
wrinkled in the way previously described, though evidently not so 
finely, and are then stamped and modeled by hand into the most 
artistic designs imaginable. 
The extent of the leather-paper industry is not great, but, as it is, 
over 200,000 paper pouches are made annually by one firm alone in 
Yamada and about $15,000 worth of business yearly is claimed to be- 
done by the same firm. 
-Any plant from which can be produced a set of papers widely dif-— 
ferent from those we already have is worthy of consideration by the— 
cultivators of the country, and if the processes of manufacture can — 
make out of it better, stronger envelopes, finer and lighter wrapping 
paper, more suitable toilet papers, or a cheap and useful substitute 
for leather, the cultivation of the plant in America may prove de- 
cidedly profitable. : 
As the species of mitsumata-is not one which will withstand much 
cold, it is useless to try to grow it in any regions where the 
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