170         ON  PAPYRUS,  BONAPARTEA,  AND  OTHER  PLANTS. 
be  converted  into  white  paper  pulp  after  they  have  ripened  the 
grain,  the  joints  or  knots  in  the  stalks  are  then  so  hardened  that 
they  will  resist  all  bleaching  agents.  To  produce  paper  pulp 
from  them,  they  must  be  cut  green  before  the  grain  appears,  and 
this  would  probably  not  be  advantageous.  Many  grasses  con- 
tain from  30  to  50  per  cent,  of  fibre,  not  very  strong,  but  easily 
bleached.  Of  indigenous  grasses,  the  Rye  grass  contains  35 
percent,  of  paper  pulp.,  the  Phalaris  30  per  cent.,  Arrenatherum 
30  per  cent.,  Dactylis  30  per  cent.,  and  Carex  30  per  cent. 
Several  reeds  and  canes  contain  from  30  to  50  per  cent,  of  fibre, 
easily  bleached.  The  stalk  of  the  sugar-cane  gives  40  per  cent, 
of  white  paper  pulp.  The  wood  of  the  Coniferse  gives  a  fibre 
suitable  for  paper  pulp.  I  made  this  discovery  accidentally  in 
1851,  when  I  was  making  flax  cotton  in  my  model  establishment 
at  Stepney,  near  London.  I  remarked  that  the  pine-wood  vats 
in  which  I  bleached,  were  rapidly  decomposed  on  the  surface 
into  a  kind  of  paper  pulp.  I  collected  some,  and  exhibited  it 
in  the  Great  Exhibition — but  as  at  that  time  there  was  no  want 
of  paper  material,  no  attention  was  paid  to  it.  The  leaves  and 
top  branches  of  Scotch  fir  produce  25  per  cent,  of  paper  pulp. 
The  shavings  and  saw  dust  of  wood  from  Scotch  fir  gives  40  per 
cent.  pulp.  The  cost  of  reducing  to  pulp  and  bleaching  pine-wood, 
will  be  about  three  times  that  of  bleaching  rags.  As  none  of 
the  above-named  substances  or  plants  would  entirely  satisfy  on 
all  points  the  wants  of  the  paper-makers,  I  continued  my  re- 
searches, and  at  last  remembered  the  papyrus  (the  plant  of  which 
the  ancients  made  their  paper),  which  I  examined,  and  found  to 
contain  about  40  per  cent,  of  strong  fibre,  excellent  for  paper, 
and  very  easily  bleached.  The  only  point  which  was  not  entire- 
ly satisfactory,  was  relative  to  the  abundant  supply  of  it,  as  this 
plant  is  only  found  in  Egypt.  I  directed,  therefore,  my  atten- 
tion to  plants  growing  in  this  country  ;  and  I  found,  to  my  great 
satisfaction,  that  the  common  rushes  (Juncus  effusus,  and  others) 
contain  40  per  cent,  of  fibre,  quite  equal,  if  not  superior  to  the 
papyrus  fibre,  and  a  perfect  substitute  for  rags  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  paper,  and  that  one  ton  of  rushes  contains  more  fibre  than 
two  tons  of  flax  straw  -Pharm.  Journ.,  Nov.,  1855. 
