MATERIALS  FOR  PAPER  MAKING  FROM  INDIA. 
39 
MATERIALS  FOR  PAPER-MAKING  PROCURABLE  FROM  INDIA. 
By  J.  Forbes  Royle,  M.  D.  F.R.S. 
Paper,  it  is  well  known,  is  in  Europe  made  chiefly  from  linen 
or,  cotton  rags,  but  also  from  the  refuge  and  sweepings  of  cotton 
and  flax  mills,  as  also  of  the  coverings  of  our  cotton  bales  and 
of  worn-out  ropes.  But  paper  is  also  made  from  the  stems  and 
leaves  of  many  grasses,  as  from  rice-straw,  and  from  the  bamboo 
by  the  Chinese,  and  of  late  from  common  straw  in  this  country, 
and  even  from  wood  shavings.  The  fibrous  part  of  many  lily 
and  aloe-leaved  plants  have  been  converted  into  excellent  paper 
in  India,  where  the  fibres  of  tiliaceous,  malvaceous,  and  legumi- 
nous plants  are  employed  for  the  same  purpose.  As  in  the 
Himalayas  one  of  the  lace-bark  tribe  is  similarly  employed,  and 
in  China  one  of  the  mulberry  tribe,  and  the  nettle  in  Holland. 
I  mention  these  various  sources,  because  plants  belonging  to  the 
same  families  as  the  above  abound  in  India  and  other  warui 
countries,  and  arc  capable  of  yielding  a  very  abundant  and  never- 
failing  supply  of  sufficiently  cheap  and  very  excellent  mate- 
rials for  paper-making  of  all  kinds.  Some  may  be  used  without 
any  further  process  of  bleaching,  but  all  are  capable  of  having 
any  color  they  may  possess  destroyed  by  chemical  means,  as  I 
would  not  even  except  the  jute  canvas  or  gunny  bagging,  be- 
cause  I  have  seen  specimens  of  jute  of  a  beautiful  silky  white, 
both  plain  and  manufactured  into  fabrics  for  furniture,  &c,  as 
shown  by  the  late  Colonel  Calvert  at  the  East-India  House.  As 
the  Chinese  make  paper  of  rice-straw,  and  of  the  young  shoots 
of  the  bamboo,  while  the  Hindoos  make  ropes  of  different  gras- 
ses (such  as  Saccharum  munja,  and  Saccharum  sara),  strong 
enough  for  their  Persian  wheels  as  well  as  for  towing  lines,  it  is 
evident  that  these,  and  probably  many  others,  contain  a  suffi- 
ciency of  fibrous  material  for  paper-making.  The  cultivated 
cereals  cannot  well  be  turned  to  much  account,  for  their  straw 
forms  the  chief  food  for  cattle ;  but  as  the  country  abounds  with 
grass  jungles,  which  are  in  the  autumn  of  every  year  burnt 
down  in  order  that  the  young  blades  may  spring  up  and  afford 
pasturage  for  cattle,  it  is  evident  that  there  are  many  situations 
where  a  sufficiency  might  be  cut  down  before  it  has  become  per- 
