RATTANS, commercially rattan-canes, are the whip-like prolongations (flagelli) of the petioles of Calamus Roxburghii, Griffiths, the C. Rotang of Roxburgh and other species (Nat. Ord. Palmae). These flagelli are often of very great length, and as they are armed at their extremities with long sharp prickles, when pushed amongst the foliage of other trees they serve as tendrils to these climbing palms. The greater portion of the flagellum is smooth and glossy, with a thick silicious coating having the appearance of varnish, and being very indestructible. They are collected in Bengal, along the Coromandel coast, in Java, and in China, in vast quantities, and are used very extensively for a great variety of purposes in all parts of the peninsula of India, from which they are largely exported to all parts of the world. Their great strength and flexibility, their cylindrical form, the ease with which they split, &c., render them applicable to a variety of purposes. The Hindus and Chinese make hats, shoes, chairs, bedsteads, baskets, sieves, and other useful articles of them. They likewise use them as ropes for binding their wooden houses together, and form a great variety of mats from them. The Chinese use them to a great extent instead of cord for tying round their tea-chests. In Europe they are chiefly used in forming the bottoms of chairs and stools, and as a cheap substitute for whalebone. The imports in 1858 were 8,901,600 rattans. They usually come in bundles of about fifty in each, the canes being about 16 feet in length, and once bent in the bundle. (T. C. A.)