PAPER FIBRE PLANTS. 



131 



same remark applies to the single or woolly-headed cotton-grass, which 

 grows very commonly in similar districts to E. latifolium. 



Some examples of paper and of cloth made from the cotton grass 

 are to be seen in No. 2 Museum, Royal Gardens, Kew. 



Fig. 89 shows the single-headed species. The latter is known as the 

 Hare's Tail Cotton Grass. Both the many-headed and the single-headed 

 have been tried for the making of paper, papier-mache, and millboard. 

 The fibres have been mixed 

 with Bryum ventricosum 

 {Swelling Thread Moss). 

 They are first boiled in 

 river water for about two 

 hours, or in an alkaline 

 solution for about one 

 hour. The material re- 

 quires agitating and wash- 

 ing, and may afterwards be 

 rendered into pulp. 



Esparto or Haifa 

 (Stipa tenacissima, Gra- 

 mineae). This is a species 

 of Feather grass which 

 grows wild in Tripoli and 

 Northern Africa, and has 

 now become well known 

 .as a paper-producing grass 

 plant. 



It takes three years to 

 make the hassocks of leaves 

 of the plant good enough 



for paper - making. An 



,, ., ,, Fig. 88. Cotton Grass (many-headed), 



authority on the process, 



referring to the fibres of this grass, writes : " They felt readily, and yield 

 an excellent pulp, which is extensively used alone, or mixed with rags, 

 wood pulp, or straw. They furnish a paper which is pliant, resistant, 

 transparent, and of great purity ; thicker than other papers of the same 

 weight, and forming a good printing and writing substance. The 

 falling away in the use of esparto for paper-making, and the substitution 

 -of cheap paper pulps, must therefore be regarded as likely to lower the 

 general quality of English-made paper." 



Notwithstanding the above gloomy remarks, Esparto still claims 

 attention. In the Monthly Circular of Messrs. Ide & Christie, of London, 



