ART

WE will now touch lightly on the subject of Art.

In the present day one of the most indispensable accessories to art is Paper.

It is a curious fact that we have no records as to the time when paper was first invented. The Egyptian papyrus we do not consider, as it was not paper in our sense of the word, although we have retained the name.

Paper is a vegetable fibre carefully disintegrated, made into a pulp with water, and then dried in thin sheets. As is the case with many arts, China seems to have taken the lead in paper manufacture, and we are even now indebted to that country for the “India Paper” on which the finest proofs of engravings are taken. This paper is made from the inner bark of the bamboo. “Rice Paper,” so called, is not paper at all, but only a kind of pith cut spirally, and flattened by pressure.

There is scarcely any vegetable fibre of which paper cannot be made, and various plants have been suggested for this purpose, such as the stinging-nettle, cabbage-stalks, hop-bines, the waste of sugar-cane, sawdust, &c. Straw has already been successfully used, and so has Esparto grass.

Some years ago, when there was a scarcity of material for paper-making, the well-known Grass-wrack of our shores (Zostera marina) was brought into partial use. I believe, however, that the experiment was not a successful one.