311 
Bulletin for 1888 (pp. 275-276) and 1889 (pp. 271-972). It 
received a gold medal partly on the ground of the long services 
of the inventor to the solution of the problem. 
Barbier Machine. 
This also did not appreciably differ from that shown at previous 
trials. It has already been described in the Kew Bulletin (1888, 
p. 276; 1889, p. 269). 
Subra Machine. 
This resembled in some respects the two preceding pacninor. 
But the beaters kino continuously without reverse action. 
was an arrangement by which the workman in charge nd 
elevate the upper dion cylinder and 80 release the stems which 
were then reversed by hand. The jury was, however, of opinion 
that the Subra machine, except in the hands of LUE 
skilled workmen, would probably lead to serious accidents. 
had, however, the advantage of rem oving the Aca uo in great 
part as well as the woody core from the ribbon 
Like the Faure, the Subra machine in the eei now described 
has also been abandone d. 
Since 1891 the problem of resting the fresh stems of Chin 
grass by sS m methods has engaged incessantly the i aa 
of inventors. The results up to the present time m Licking 
in the following pages. For convenience a general summary is 
given in the first place of the facts relating to the raw een 
SOURCE OF MATERIAL. 
Perhaps the most important advance has been in the complete 
abandonment of the attempts hitherto made to treat the dry stems. 
This has been definitely acknowledged to have been a mistake, 
experience having proved that to obtain the full éd vata: of the 
many valuable qualities of the fibre the stems must be treated in 
the green state. 
The original China grass so long cultivated by the Chinese 
under the name of Tchou Ma is Behmeria nivea, Hk. & Arn 
The leaves in this are Mire etia eene The plant is 
moderately bent in temperate co it grows well 
during the summer months in the ‘South: ‘of "England. During 
1895 an ekseptton nally good crop was harvested at Kew from a 
small plot that had been established in the open ground for more 
than five years. An equally large crop is being produced this 
year (1898). The plants are, however, regularly cut down by the 
first frosts in October and do not sprout again until the middle or 
ee of May. Thus only one crop is capa able of being produced 
early. Behmeria nivea is the plant chiefly cultivated in the 
South of France, Algiers, the United States, and many parts of 
India. The plant is more readily propagated by division of the 
rhizome or rootstock than from seed. 
ie or Rhea is probably only a geographical variety of 
China grass, but from an economic point of view the differences 
between them are so important that the two plants show be kept 
quite distinct. The Ramie or Rhea (B. tenacissima, Gaud.) is 
A? 
518 
