63 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [February, 



for that purpose. The discovery to which we allude is a complete success, and 

 indeed may be expected to exercise the greatest influence upon the price of paper 

 within a very short time. Indian Com, it is true, cannot be grown except in 

 countries of a certain degree of temperature — at least, not with the prolific result 

 of warmer cUmates ; yet the plant is of frequent occurrence all over Europe, and 

 can be easily cultivated to a degree more than sufficient to satisfy the utmost de- 

 mands of the paper market. Besides, as rags are likely to fall in price before 

 long, owing to the extensive supply of material resulting from this new element, 

 the world of writers and readers would seem to have a brighter future before it 

 than the boldest fancy would have imagined a very short time ago. This is not 

 the first time that paper has been manufactured from the blade of Indian Corn ; 

 but, strange to say, the art was lost, and required to be discovered anew. As 

 early as the seventeenth century, an Indian Corn paper manufactory was in full 

 operation at the town of Rievi, in Italy, and enjoyed a world-wide reputation at 

 the time ; but with the death of its proprietor the secret seems to have lapsed into 

 oblivion. The manifold attempts subsequently made to continue the manufacture 

 were always baffled by the difficulty of removing the flmt and the resinous and 

 glutinous matter contained in the blade. The recovery of this process has at last 

 been effected, and is due to the cleverness of one Herr Moritz Diamant, a Jewish 

 writing-master in Austria. Having busied himself for some time in experiments 

 on Indian Corn, the ingenious discoverer has at length been rewarded with the 

 desired results of his labovir ; and a trial of his method on a grand scale, which 

 was made at the Imperial manufactory of Schlogclmlihle, near Glognitz (Lower 

 Austria), has completely demonstrated the certainty of the invention. Although 

 the machinery, arranged as it was for the manufacture of rag paper, could not, of 

 course, fully answer the requirements of Herr Diamant, the results of the essay 

 were wonderfully favourable. The article pi'oduced was of a purity of texture and 

 whiteness of colour that left nothing to be desired ; and this is all the more valu- 

 able from the difficulty usually experienced in the removal of impurities from the 

 rags. Knots and other inequalities of surface, so frequent in the ordinary paper, 

 and which give so much trouble in printing, the new product is entirely free 

 from, and this without the material undergoing any special process to attain the 

 desu'ed end. 



" Another immense advantage, and this in an economical point of view, is the 

 reduction of the steam power required in the manufacture by one-third of its pre- 

 sent amount, in consequence of the material being reduced to pulp by chemical, 

 and not, as at present, mechanical agency. The present proprietor of the invention 

 is Count Carl Octavio zu Lippe Wcissenfeld, who has bought it from the origi- 

 nator, and fi'om several experiments deduced the following results : — 



" 1. It is not only possible to produce every variety of paper from the blades of 

 Indian Corn, but the product is equal, and in some respects even superior, to the 

 article manufactiu-ed from rags. 



" 2. The paper requires but very little size to render it fit for writing purposes, as 

 the pulp naturally contains a large proportion of that necessary ingredient, which 

 can at the same time be easdy ehminated if desirable. 



" 3. The bleaching is effected by an extraordinarily rapid and facile process, and, 

 indeed, for the common Ught-coloured packing paper the process becomes entirely 

 unnecessary. 



" 4. The Indian-corn paper possesses greater strength and tenacity than rag paper, 

 without the drawback of brittleness so conspicuous in the common straw products. 



" 5. No machinery being required in the manufacture of this paper for the purpose 

 of tearing up the raw material and reducing it to pulp, the expense, both in point 

 of power and time, is far less than is necessary for the production of rag paper. 



" Count Lippe having put himself into communication with the Austrian Govern- 

 ment, an Imperial manufactory for Indian-corn paper (MaisAalm-papier, as the 

 inventor calls it,) is now in course of construction at Pesth, the capital of the 

 greatest Indian Corn growing country in Europe. Another manufactory is already 

 in full operation in Switzerland ; and preparations are being made on the coast of 

 the MediteiTanean for the production and exportation on a large scale of the pulp 

 of this new material." 



