SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 239 



of a calcareous nature, and should be planted at intervals not exceeding 

 three feet ; otherwise the branches would extend, whereby the bark 

 would become full of knots, causing much loss of substance in the manu- 

 facture. The soil is not manured until the second year ; in the autumn 

 of that year the plant is lopped close to the root, and this operation, as 

 well as that of manuring slightly, is repeated every second year. 1001b. 

 of branches thus obtained, stripped of their leaves, yield 101b. of bark. 

 The branches, on arriving at the manufactory, are put into hot water for 

 half an hour ; the bark can then be easily stripped off by the hands, and 

 is afterwards left in the sun to dry. It is next macerated for three days 

 in river water and bleached in the sun. These operations having been 

 several times repeated, the bark is at last boiled in a lye of ashes for the 

 space of three hours, then manipulated for some time to separate any 

 epidermis that may have remained ; and, lastly, when dry, the mass is 

 pounded fine and made into a pulp with water, to which a glutinous 

 liquid is extracted from a shrub called Nebooicko — probably the Acacia- 

 Nemu — is added in the proportion of about two pints per cwt. of pulp- 

 The latter is then made into sheets much in the usual way. Sir Ruther- 

 ford Alcock states that the barks of different shrubs are used, and his 

 collection in the International Exhibition contained some 60 or 70 dif- 

 ferent kinds of paper, with the various applications for pocket-handker- 

 chiefs, bank-notes, printing and room-paper, waterproof clothing, imita- 

 tion leather, &c. 



Esparto (Lygeum Spartum, Lozffl.) is a grass common to the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, and has of late years assumed great commercial 

 importance for paper-making. A city broker assures me that in the 

 course of this year not less than from 10,000 to 12,000 tons will be 

 imported into England alone. Nearly every coal ship returning from 

 the Mediterranean to England brings a cargo of this grass, the demand 

 for which is constantly increasing, and it is stated that some of our 

 largest daily papers are entirely printed on paper made of it. Of all 

 substitutes for rags this fibre seems about to carry off the palm. It is 

 procurable in any quantity both on the European and African shores of 

 the Mediterranean, where it grows on land otherwise unproductive, on 

 arid, rocky soil, having a basis of silica and iron. It is indigenous to 

 Portugal, Spain, Sicily, Naples, Algiers, and, judging from a specimen 

 in the British Museum collection, also in the Island of Crete. But we 

 have hitherto chiefly imported it from Spain and Algeria. On the spot 

 it fetches from 42s. to 50s per ton ; but in England, at the present time, 

 41. 10s. from the ship's side. So readily is this valuable fibre converted 

 into paper, that a cargo which arrived in the Thames in the morning 

 was made into paper in the evening — at least so a city merchant 

 assures me. 



Botanists have long been familiar with this grass. Pliny, to go no 

 further back, has much to tell about the innumerable uses to which it 



