542 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



First, round fibres that can lend themselves easily to the for- 

 mation of twisted cords. Those of hemp and flax are the 

 only ones of this class. Second, round smooth fibres that do 

 not easily form cording, such as jute, feather-grass, palm, 

 sugar-cane, etc. Third, the materials of cellular fibrous nat- 

 ure, of which the only one worthy of note is the pulp obtain- 

 ed from the straw of rye or wheat under the action of caus- 

 tic solutions. Fourth, fibrous plates, under which head he 

 classes fibres of cotton and those extracted from wood by 

 chemical processes, those of the agave, bamboo, etc. Fifth, 

 imperfect material, such as the pulp obtained by the mechan- 

 ical maceration of wood. Bulletin Jlebdom., XVI., 69. 



PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL CAOUTCHOUC. 



A mass,. said to resemble caoutchouc, and soluble in lin- 

 seed oil, may be prepared by heating in an iron kettle, which 

 should only be half filled, ten pounds of sulphur, or flowers 

 of sulphur, and twenty pounds of rape -seed oil, with con- 

 stant stirring, until the sulphur is melted and the mass be- 

 gins to swell; then immediately pouring it into a mould, 

 dusted with some kind of powder, or upon a stone slab 

 moistened with water, when it will harden at once. Linseed 

 oil may replace the rape-seed oil, in which case less sulphur 

 must be taken. 



USE OF THE WILD RICE PLANT IN PAPER-MAKING. 



The stem of the American wild rice, Zizania aquatica, is 

 now coming extensively into use as a material for paper 

 pulp, yielding, as it does, fully as much of the raw material 

 as the esparto, and being comparatively free from silicates. 

 The paper made from this substance is quite as strong and 

 as flexible as that from rags, while it is easily bleached, 

 economical in respect to chemicals, pure in color, and re- 

 markably free from specks and blemishes. It is estimated 

 that one hundred thousand tons can easily be obtained from 

 the shores of the Canadian lakes alone. 12 A y September 24, 

 1874,427. 



VALUE OF THE MILK-WEED AS A FIBRE-PLANT. 



M. Roux calls attention to the value of the common milk- 

 weed (Asclepias Syriaca), so abundant along roadsides in 



