[ so ] 
I 
VI II. An Account of an EJfay on the Oingln 
of a natural Paper^ fou?id 7iear the City 
of Cortona in Tufcany. In a Letter 
from John Strange, Efq\ F. R. S, to 
Mathew Maty, M. D, Sec. R. S. 
Dear Sir, 
Read February 1 6, -jY yl' Y letter to Mr. CoItelHni, fe- 
1769. jLVJL cretary to the Botanical Aca- 
demy of Cortona, concerning the origin of a natural 
paper found in the neighbourhood of that city 
(which, with fome fpecimens of paper, you oblig- 
ingly prefented to the Royal Society in my name), 
being written in a foreign language, and but little 
known ; I have thought proper to give you the fol- 
lowing fhort account of it, together with fome addi- 
tional remarks, which 1 have made fince its publi- 
cation. 
In Auguft 1763, fome low grounds, in a farm 
about four miles fouth-weft of Cortona, which had 
been flooded, were found covered with a fubftance 
very much like a finer fort of common brown paper. 
A circumftantial account of the facfl was communi- 
cated to the public the September following, in a let- 
ter from the faid Mr. Coltellini to Dr. Lami, profef- 
for of theology at Florence. 
This account furprifed, and excited the curiofity of 
the naturalifts in Italy j and various were the con- 
jedtures 
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