SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 335 



enterprise to make it subserve our purpose. No paper- maker will ven- 

 ture on a trial with a new fibre, until some outside difficulty drives him 

 to do it. The difficulty has come, and so also has come the free use of 

 it, and encouragement given to it in quarters that would formerly have 

 scorned to lift it for the price of carting it into their mill. In Britain 

 we have taken up esparto to the exclusion of all other new fibres nearly, 

 but on the continent we find several substitutes have taken a permanent 

 hold of the market. The only place on the continent in which esparto 

 is used to any great extent is in Belgium. In France and Germany they 

 make use of wood fibre, prepared according to M. N. Vaelter's patent. 

 They also use alia fibre for esparto. This they do on account of its 

 growing in Algiers, which is a French colony. The paper-makers are 

 actively using beet-root and maize in paper-making, and herein show far 

 more enterprize than we do to find a material at once suitable and 

 cheap. — ' Paper Trade Review.' 



Cultivation of the Sunflower.— To produce this plant (Helian- 

 thus, annnal sunflower), in perfection, there is required a light, rich 

 soil, as unshadowed by trees as possible. The earlier the seed can be got 

 into the ground the better, say the end of September, or the begin- 

 ning of October, as the crop will be ready to harvest the latter part of 

 February, which will be the greatest importance to growers. The 

 necessary quantity of seed required for an acre depends on the condi- 

 tion of the soil, and varies from four pounds to five pounds ; but of 

 course it is advisable to sow a little more than is actually wanted to 

 provide against accidents. The seed should be drilled into the ground, 

 and the distance from row to row eighteen inches ; the plants to be 

 thinned out to thirty inches from plant to plant, and the number of 

 plants at this distance would be about 14,500 per acre ; at eighteen 

 inches from plant to plant 25,000 per acre ; and at twelve inches from 

 plant to plant 32,000. The produce of this kind, like that of most 

 others, varies considerably, according to the state of the soil, the cli- 

 mate, and the cultivation that is employed ; but the average quantity of 

 seed is about fifty bushels per acre. This will produce fifty gallons of 

 oil, and of oil cake 1,500 pounds. The stalks when burnt for alkali, 

 give ten hundred weight of potash. The seed forms a most excellent 

 and convenient food for poultry, and it is only necessary to cut off the 

 heads of the plants when ripe, tie them in bunches, and hang them up 

 in a dry situation, to be used as wanted. They not only fatten every 

 kind of poultry, but greatly increase the quantity of eggs they lay. 

 When cultivated to a considerable extent they are also capital food for 

 sheep and pigs. The leaves, when dried, form good fodder for cattle. 

 "When the flower is in bloom it is most attractive to bees. The stalk is 

 admirably adapted from its fibrous character, for the manufacture of 

 paper. 



Growth of the Bamboo. — In the Royal Botanic Garden at Edin- 



