PAPER MULBERRY. 
207 
The whole of the business is finished by taking the 
different heaps and marking the borders, after which 
the leaves are pressed and sold. 
It appears that the infusion of rice is highly ne- 
cessary in the manufactory of the Japan paper, to 
give it the proper consistence and whiteness. The 
rice of the country is particularly adapted for the 
purpose, as it is whiter and more mucilaginous than 
that of any other part of Asia. 
The male flowers of the paper mulberry grow in 
cylindrical catkins, while those in the female, by 
their reunion, assume a globular form. Each little 
flower that contributes to form the globe is situated 
close to its neighbour, being divided from it only 
by a scale ; and every one has its proper calyx, 
formed of a small tube with four teeth : in the 
centre is placed the germ ; it has a lateral and very 
long style terminated by a simple stigma. 
This tree resembles the mulberry, not only in 
its figure, but in several useful properties which 
are common to both trees. Olivier de Serre ob- 
served, that the interior bark of the mulberry, ma« 
cerated a certain time, yielded a silky matter, from 
which silk might be manufactured. M. de La- 
rouviere, some time afterwards, extracted a vegetable 
silk from the young branches of the Japanese plant, 
after they had been soaked and beaten. This ex- 
periment proves, that the leaves of this plant, like 
those of the common mulberry, might be used to feed 
silk-worms. There exists another interesting analogy 
between the two plants, which was first noticed by 
