10 THREE NEW PLANT INTRODUCTIONS. 
doubtless carried this cover for years, neatly packed away somewhere 
about his cart. The ‘‘rikisha” coolies in the large cities wear rain 
mantles of this oiled paper which cost less than 18 cents and last for 
a year or more with constant use. _ 
An oiled tissue paper, which is as tough as writing paper, can be 
had at the stationers for wrapping up delicate articles. Every farm- 
house has its stock of wrapping paper which has been in use for several 
years and seems as strong and flexible as ever. It has been tanned 
with the fermented juice of green persimmons and made into ‘‘shibu 
gami,” which is more impervious to moisture than ordinary paper and 
much tougher. 
In the tea factories, the piles of paper sacks filled with tea are made 
of shibu gami, and 8-year-old sacks covered with paper patches are a 
common sight. Itissaid that these tanned sacks keep the tea in better 
condition than any other sort, and that they last with careful use for 
many years. Grain and meal sacks are almost always made of this 
same paper in Japan, for it is not easily penetrated by weevils and 
other insects. 
But perhaps the most remarkable of all the papers which find a 
common use in the Japanese household are the leather papers of which 
the tobacco pouches and pipe cases are made. They are almost as 
tough as French kid, so translucent that one can nearly see through 
them, and as pliable and soft as calfskin. These tobacco pouches quite 
change one’s notions of the characteristics of paper, for the material of 
which they are made is as thick as cardboard, but as flexible as kid. 
Even woven fabrics of which the warp is paper and the woof cotton 
are manufactured, and these find a place in the Japanese household, 
while the use of paper napkins and handkerchiefs, umbrellas, and 
lanterns is as much a part of home life in Japan as the use of cheap tin 
articles is in America. The country is rich in the possession of these 
conveniences, any one of which would be an addition to the comfort of 
a European peasant or an American farmer. But the reason for this 
remarkable use of paper articles does not lie wholly in the absence of 
cheap skins, though it is true that few domesticated leather-producing 
animals exist in Japan. The quality of the papers themselves makes 
them suitable, as ours are not, to these various purposes. 
In strong contrast with those of the Occident, these are bast papers, 
made from the inner bark of shrubs or small trees, while the papers 
f Europe and America are either from wood pulp, the macerated 
stems of wild grasses, or the cotton and linen rags of the ash barrels. — 
It is not a pleasant thought that the brilliant white note paper which 
your hand rests upon may have in it the fibers from the filthy garment 
of some Egyptian fellah after it has passed through all the stages of © 
decay until it is saved by a ragpicker from the gutter of an Egyptian 
town; and yet it is a fact that hundreds of tons of Egyptian rags are 
