64 BRITISH GRASSES. 



classical antiquity. A stock of it was included among 

 the naval stores laid in by the Carthaginians, and good 

 cordage and matting is still made of it in Spain ; they 

 also use it for bedding in that country. A very nice 

 collection of useful and fancy articles manufactured from 

 this grass is to be seen in the Kew Museum. 



Stems of grasses, especially of the cereal ones, are 

 much used in the manufacture of paper. The Chinese 

 were the first to employ them extensively for this pur- 

 pose : they use many plants thus, but principally cotton, 

 bamboo, and wheat and rice-straw. In preparing the 

 bamboo for paper they use the whole substance for com- 

 moner sorts, but for superior paper they select only young 

 stems. Ure thus describes the process of making paper 

 from bamboo : — " The canes, being first cut into pieces of 

 four or five feet in length, are made into parcels, and 

 thrown into a reservoir of mud and water for about a 

 fortnight, to soften them; they are then taken out and 

 carefully washed, every one of the pieces being again 

 cut into filaments, which are exposed to the rays of the 

 sun to dry and to bleach. After this they are boiled in 

 large kettles, and then reduced to pulp in mortars, by 

 means of a hammer with a long handle, or, as is more 

 commonly the case, by submitting the mass to the action 

 of stampers, raised in the usual way by cogs on a revolv- 

 ing axis. The pulp being thus far prepared, a glutinous 

 substance extracted from the shoots of a certain plant is 

 next mixed with it in stated quantities, and upon this 

 admixture chiefly depends the quality of the paper. As 

 soon as this has taken place the whole is then beaten 

 together till it becomes a thick viscous liquor, which, 

 after being reduced to an essential state of consistency 

 by a further admixture of water, is then transferred to a 



