These terms at first are rather confusing to one who is not familiar with them, and it is well to be posted in a measure, at least, as to what they represent.

The German, Chinese, and American rattan is practically the same thing, and is grown in almost the same locality in China, and some of the East Indies. They grow in a wild state over rocks and up through and over tree tops, and some reach a length of hundreds of feet. They have a thorny outer bark which makes the rattan hard to handle, but the natives cut the rattan and let it lay until, by drying, the thorny outer bark peels off, leaving the smooth rattan with a nicely enameled outer surface. The natives cut the rattan into lengths of from twelve to fifteen feet and carry it on their backs to the nearest market. The Chinese forward their gatherings of rattan to the great rattan market of Singapore, China, where the American and foreign houses have their agencies. The rattan is sorted, cleaned, graded, and shipped to the splitting factories in America and Europe. The different localities in which the rattan grows have a great bearing on its texture. The kind that has its roots in swamps has a coarse, woody fibre, while the rattan which grows on the high ground has a smooth, white appearance and is tough.

By special delicate machinery, the outside of the rattan is split off and used for cane rush, such as is used in cane-seated chairs, and the center which is left is run through machinery that makes the "reed." German and American reed is made by the same kind of machinery.

The Chinese reed is made from the poorest quality of rattan, which the American and European markets reject, and. as they manufacture the reeds mostly by hand, they are forced to use acids to remove the cane from the rattan. The acid takes the life from rattan and causes it to he brittle and easily broken.

"Willow" has a hollow center, while rattan has a solid center. Rattan is of a long fibrous nature, which makes it especially good for bending without breaking, while, owing to the roughness of willow at the small joints where leaves have grown, it is not so well adapted to bending purposes.

There is a twisted Chinese grass that has been made into furniture and introduced into this country. The styles of these goods are beautiful and the prices reasonably low, but if the construction is carefully examined they will be seen to be too poorly made to give lengthy service.

The "fiber rush" furniture, introduced within the last dozen years, has passed the experimental stage, and can be highly recommended for good hard service. It is simply a twisted paper which has gone through a very severe preparation which enables it to withstand the hardest kind of wear and abuse from exposure to weather. It is used the same as reed on a wooden frame work, and has displaced, to a degree, the grass furniture, having in its favor strength and the lack of the odor that accompanies grass furniture.