334 SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 



Amianthus. — In Corsica a few years since they made use of amian- 

 thus in the manufacture of common pottery, which gave it great tough- 

 ness and tenacity, and enabled it to resist most efficaciously the effects of 

 a blow, or of irregular dilatation. Amianthus is also found miugled 

 with the paste of some Chinese vases of common manufacture. 



Fibres of Bermuda. — The Cotton plant (Gossypium Herbaceuni), or 

 common short staple cotton, is a perennial in the Bermudas, enduring 

 for a period of from twelve to twenty years, grows to a height of eight or 

 ten feet, producing abundantly during the whole time of its existence, 

 and bears two crops a year. We have specimens from trees fifteen years 

 old growing wild in barren spots ; but if the plant were cultivated with 

 the care that is bestowed upon it in the Southern States of America, 

 abundant crops of the long-stapled variety could be grown here, possess- 

 ing all the silky fineness so desirable in the fibre. Both the climate and 

 Boil are admirably suited for its production, and there is land enough 

 lying wild and useless that, if cultivated, would yield a million of pounds 

 annually. Fibre of the Changeable Rose (Althea Flos-mutabilis). This 

 plant grows wild in the Bermudas, and, if cultivated, would yield an 

 abundance of fibre suitable for the manufacture either of cloth or paper. 

 The specimen sent was obtained from the bark of the tree, but the stem3 

 of the smaller boughs and twigs would also furnish good fibre. Besides 

 fibre, the bark yields a gum, which might also be made useful. Fibre 

 of the American Aloe {Agave Americana). This plant grows wild in 

 the Bermudas, and in great abundance. It delights in rocky soils, and 

 would do well on hill sides and in exposed situations, where scarcely 

 anything else worth cultivating would grow, and it would also form a 

 good hedge. The fibre is admirably adapted for the manufacture of all 

 kinds of cordage. 



New Fibre for Paper. — The dearness and scarcity of rags has in 

 eome cases compelled the makers to experiment and make use of other 

 substitutes in the room of rags. "Whatever may be said about the per- 

 manent injury to the. trade from the condition of the rag question, no 

 one can doubt that the greatest benefit must accrue from the encourage- 

 ment and favourable reception of other fibres. Already the most salu- 

 tary benefit has been felt from the steady increase in the use of esparto. 

 But for its timely relief the price of rags would be enhanced to such a 

 degree, that it would be ruinous to work at present prices. The makers 

 are beginning to see that their antagonism to growing fibres has left 

 them in a very sad state, now that foreign legislation has crippled the 

 free use of rags. The knowledge .of esparto is not so very modern that 

 we should only now be going to school to know its qualities and its 

 worth. It has been before the world from a remote time, and the use 

 of it in paper-making has been known since the middle of the last cen- 

 tury. We have found it referred to in a work of Schauffer, published 

 in 1753, at Nuremberg. The only thing recpiired has been the spirit of 



