r. I believe this is made from rice straw. Paper which has thin
lines about the distance apart of the ruled lines in writing paper is
called _batonne_, from the French _baton_, a stick or rule. If the
paper between the _batons_ is wove, it is called wove batonne. If the
space is filled with fine laid lines, it is called laid batonne.
_Quadrille_ paper has laid lines which form small squares. When these
lines form rectangles, it is called oblong quadrille.

[Illustration: Paper]

[Illustration: Paper]

[Illustration: Paper]

Some of the stamps of Mexico were printed on paper ruled with blue
lines. This was merely ordinary foolscap paper. Many of the early stamps
of Russia were on a paper having the surface coated with a soluble
enamel. This not only gave a very fine impression but, on an attempt to
clean a cancelled stamp, the enamel would wash off, carrying the design
with it.

Two stamps of Prussia, issued in 1866, are usually said to be on
gold-beater's skin. But they are really on a very thin tough paper which
has been treated with shellac, parrafine, or something which makes it
transparent, and afterwards coated with a gelatine preparation. On this
the design was printed reversed, i.e. only to be seen correctly when
viewed through the paper. The stamps were gummed on the printed side.
When they were affixed to an envelope any attempt to soak them off
resulted in the paper coming away while the design adhered to the
envelope, like a decalcomanie. Essays of this nature were made in a
number of countries, including our own, but Prussia was the only one to
make and use the stamps.

There are several varieties of paper which have threads of silk or other
fibre. The first of these is known as Dickinson paper, from the name of
its inventor. It has one or two threads of silk incorporated in the
paper in the course of manufacture. For stamped envelopes two threads
were generally used. They were placed about half an inch apart and the
envelope was usually so printed that the threads would cross the stamp.
For adhesive stamps only one thread was used. Great Britain and several
of the German States made extensive use of this paper. It has never been
successfully counterfeited. The best imitation was made by gumming
together two thin pieces of paper with a silk thread between them but
the fraud was not difficult to detect.

Some of the United States revenue stamps were printed on a paper which
had a few bits of silk fib