BOTANY. 335 



SUBSTITUTES FOR COFFEE. 



Liebig states that asparagus contains, in common with tea and coffee, a 

 principle which he calls "taurine," and which he considers essential to the 

 health of those who do not take strong exercise. Taking the hint from Baron 

 Liebig, a writer in the London Gardener's Chronicle was led to test asparagus 

 as a substitute for coffee. He says: " The young shoots I first prepared were 

 not agreeable, having an alkaline taste. I then tried the ripe seeds, and 

 these, roasted and ground, make a full flavored coffee, not easily distinguished 

 from fine Mocha. The seeds are easily freed from the berries by drying them 

 in a cool oven, and then rubbing them on a sieve." 



There is in Berlin, Prussia, a large establishment for the manufacture of 

 coffee from acorns and chicory, the articles being made separately from each. 

 The chicory is mixed with an equal weight of turnips to render it sweeter. 

 The acorn coffee, which is made from roasted and ground acorns, is sold in 

 large quantities, and frequently with rather a medicinal than an economical 

 view, as it is thought to have a wholesome effect upon the blood, particularly 

 of scrofulous persons. Acorn coffee is, however, made and used in many 

 parts of Germany for the sole purpose of adulterating genuine coffee. 



N THE VARIETIES OF PLANTS WHICH CAN FURNISH FIBERS 



FOR PAPER PULP. 



The following paper was read before the British Association by M. Claussen, 

 well known in connection with the flax-cotton experiment : 



"What paper-makers require is as follows: 



They require a cheap material, with a strong fiber, easily bleached, and of 

 which an unlimited supply may be obtained. I will now enumerate a few of 

 the different substances which I have examined for the purpose of discovering 

 a proper substitute for rags. Rags containing about 50 per cent, of vegetable 

 fiber mixed with wool or silk are regarded by the paper-makers as useless to 

 them, and several thousand tons are yearly burned in the manufacture of 

 prussiate of potash. By a simple process which consists in boiling these rags 

 in caustic alkali, the animal fiber is dissolved, and the vegetable fiber is avail- 

 able for the manufacture of white paper pulp. Surat, or Jute, the inner bark 

 of Corchorus indicia, produces a paper pulp of inferior quality bleached with 

 difficulty. Agave, Phormium tenax, and banana or plantain fiber (Manilla 

 hemp), are_ not only expensive, but it is nearly impossible- to bleach them. 

 The banana leaves contain forty per cent, of fiber. Flax would be suitable 

 to replace rags in paper manufacture, but the high price and scarcity of it, 

 caused partly by the war, and partly by the injudicious way in which it is 

 cultivated, prevents that. Six tons of flax straw are required to produce one 

 ton of flax fiber, and by the present mode of treatment all the woody part is 

 lost. Nettles produce 25 per cent, of a very beautiful and easily bleached 

 fiber. Palm leaves contain 30 or 40 per cent, fiber, but are not easily 

 bleached. The Bromeliacese contain from 25 to 40 per cent fiber. Bono- 



