56 SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 
densely so on the circular disc round the fimbriated mouth. The 
colour of the interior layer of the external peridium and the inner 
_peridium is a beautiful pale soft dove colour with an inclination to 
pale buff. The spores are dark brown, slightly echinulate, and 
measure ‘00013" diam.” The figures are half natural size, the section 
natural size, the spores enlarged 700 diameters. 
Esrarto Gnrass.— Fibrous substances, whether for textile 
purposes or for paper-making, have occupied much attention _of 
late. The fact that paper can be made from almost anything 
has not lessened the demand for the old staple article, rags, and 
next to rags perhaps Esparto or Sparto Grass. But. there 
seems to be a fear lest the supply of the latter should fail, or 
at , tells us in a recent report that * Alfa or Alpha fibre, 
or Sparto Grass, which covers immense spaces on the high plateau, is 
cut down and renews itself annually wi very 
railway between Ilelet and Bel Abbes. In 1862 the first cargo, 
suspicious of the , . 
being considerably more in favour. Quite ecently a large trade in 
art 
material. Alfa and Esparto hay. en considered as 
produce of distinct plants, some persons referring t rmer to 
igeum Spartum, L., and the latter to UZ ssima, Kth., 
while others have simply reversed it. e s plies” 
merce consists only of the leaves merely torn from the plant, and 
m the specimens that I have seen fro me, including 
those contained in the Kew Museum, always appeared to me identical, 
though from want of flowers or other material to determine them 00 
