Note 155 — XV.

These lanterns, often beautifully carved and otherwise adorned, are among the most characteristic furniture of a Chinese room. Into their manufacture enter not alone glass, horn, silk, paper, &c., but also the glutinous matter derived from a species of sea-tangle (Gigartina tenax—called by the Malays Agar-Agar), with which the paper employed in covering the sides of the lantern is fastened on. In the silk and paper manufactures too this omnipresent Agar-Agar paste plays so important a part, that above 500 piculs at $2 a picul, are annually imported from the Indian Archipelago.