MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES kc. 
Nil 
amiss, before quitting the subject, to draw attention in a few lines to ano¬ 
ther tannin yielding substance which was last year brought to the n >tice of 
the Society by Dr. Irvine, in his interesting report (t on the resources and 
products of Darjeeling.” In that report Dr. Irvine alludes to the existence, 
in the forests of Darjeeling, of several species of oak affording valonia in 
large quantities, of a quality fully equal to that of Smyrna. At present the 
European tanners of this city obtain this valuable product from a foreign 
market, at no little cost, and without the certainty of its arrival in good con¬ 
dition $ whereas, it appears, that the same article could be readiiy procur¬ 
ed, for a comparatively trifling sum, at no greater distance from Calcutta 
than 400 miles ! 
w The Society reiterates the call made in the last report for further con¬ 
tributions tow ards this department of vegetable and mineral products. It 
would more particularly ask for specimens from all parts of the country of 
gums, gum-resins, vegetable oils, tanning and dyeing substances, fibrous 
materials, wild silks, and grains of sorts. Furnished with convenient apart¬ 
ments, it is now in a position to make a satisfactory arrangement of all such 
contributions, and will use every means to procure information as to the 
relatives values and properties of the different articles placed atits disposal, 
u Another subject which, in its turn, has attracted attention, has reference 
The Kunchoora t0 lhe ^ uncfl0ra ^ re of Rungpore. This superior 
-fibre of Rungpore, material has been lately brought to the notice of the 
or Hh&eaoi Assam. g oc j et y (jy Dr. Campbell of Darjeeling, and additional 
particulars given by Mr. Henley of Calcutta. As these details have been 
published in the Journal it is unnecessary to recapitulate them here. It is 
however worthy of remark, that further enquiries have tended consider¬ 
ably to strengthen an opinion that this plant, the Urtica tenacissima of 
Roxburgh/ is identical with that from which the superior fabric, known as 
the " grass-cloth” of China, is manufactured, and for which there is, at 
* Dr. Roxburgh states, he was informed by a friend, a resident of Canton, 
that the grass-cloth of China is made from the same plant that yields the 
fibre which Marsden, fn his history of Sumatra, calls Calooee (urtica fe- 
nacissimaj . At Penang, he states, it is called Ramy. —See Roxburgh’s 
observation on substitutes for hemp and flax.) Col. Low, in his work 
on Penang and Province Wellesley, alludes to the same plant, and by 
the same name QRameeJ, as yielding a sort of hemp y and observes, 
that it might be easily manufactured into the linen which in China is 
called grass-cloth. u The Chinese here,” lie adds, u calls the plant Cho f 
and alledge that it is the same as that which grows in China, where 
it is used for making the cloth just mentioned.” Col. Burney, when Re¬ 
sident atAva, sent a quantity of fibre of Urtica tenacissima to the Socie¬ 
ty ; he states, that the Shans use it for every kind of cordage ; by them it 
