31 
good fibre suitable for ropes, cordage, &c. The process of 
maceration extends sometimes to five or six Aveeks. 
CIX. — Typha angustifolia (Linn^us). “Native Bullrush” 
or “ Cat's-tail.” Order Tyiohcwem, Australia, Tasmania, New 
Zealand, Europe, &c. 
This cosmopolitan aquatic perennial is too well known to need 
description. It is very plentiful in Victoria and tlie other 
Australian colonies, on the banks of streams and fresh-water 
lagoons. Furnishes a first-class material for paper-making, and A 
a fibre of fair strength and fineness may be manufactured from 
the leaves. 
Prepared by a boiling process, which occupies four hours ; 
afterwards it is scraped and lieckled. 
Sample prepared from 100 leaves. 
CX. — Xeroxes longifolta (R. Brown). “ Native Tussock 
Grass” or “Mat Rush.” Order Jimcacec^. Victoria, Ne^v 
South Wales, Queensland, &c. 
A tufted perennial, Avidely dispersed throughout the colonies, 
especially on plains and open country subject to floods, or in 
the neighbourhood of Avater. The leaves attain a length of 3 or 
4 feet ; they furnish a valuable paper-pulp. As a fibre-plant Y 
for any other purpose, however, it may be considered of little 
A^alue. Prepared by boiling for twelve hours, and the usual 
scraping. 
“It is reckoned as the best indigenous substitute for ^Esparto’ 
for paper-making.^^ (Spon). The culms are used by the Yarra 
tribe of south-eastern Australia for manufacturing baskets. 
{Useful Fibre Plants of the Worlds Professor C. R. Dodge.) 
CXI. — Yucca aloifolia (Linna3us). “Aloe-leaved Adam’s 
Needle ” or “ Dagger-leaf.’^ OvAev Liliacece. North America 
and West Indies. 
A plant well known in Australian gardens of any pretensions, 
being extensively planted for scenic effect, in conjunction Avith 
Cordylines, Doryanthes, Agaves, Dasylirions, and such like. It 
is a good fibre-plant, and, like many other species of the genus, 
succeeds on the poorest soils, and is of moderately quick growth. 
The fibre is suitable for ropes, cordage, and coarse cloth, and 
possesses great strength. In appearance and texture it resembles 
Agave fibre. It is very simply prepared, either by maceration, 
by crushing the leaA^es between fluted rollers, or by boiling ; the 
latter operation takes four hours, after which the cuticle comes 
away readily by scraping. The sample is the product of 360 
leaves so treated. 
