_Linden Bast_ (_Tilia Europæa_) is the raw material employed in the manufacture in Russia of the mats so largely used in this country for wrapping furniture and heavy goods, and also by gardeners for a variety of purposes. One of the features of this bast is the strong cohesion of the fibres in the bundles or filaments. They are resolved, but with difficulty, on long boiling, with a solution of carbonate of soda, the soluble products being of a mucilaginous nature. This bast has not been applied to any extent by the paper-makers of this country. _Bast of the Paper Mulberry_ (_Broussonetia papyrifera_).—This product deserves mention, not from its importance to the European papermaker, but because of its application to the manufacture of the peculiar papers of the Chinese and Japanese. The special features of this, and the other basts which are similarly employed in these countries—_Edgworthia papyrifera_, _Broussonetia kaempferia_, are (1), the ease with which the coherent fibrous tissue is separated from the parenchymatous tissue which accompanies it; (2), its comparative freedom from medullary rays; (3), the great length and fineness of the fibres. These properties conduce to its ready conversion into a well felted paper, of great tensile strength and remarkable softness. Class C.—These are whole stems of monocotyledonous annuals. The isolation of fibres for paper-making from these plants depends upon a chemical process of resolution; the {55} pulp obtained is, therefore, a complex of the various orders of cell-fibres contained in the plant. While the pulp consists for the most part of the vessels of the fibro-vascular bundles, it contains in addition the serrated cuticular cells which are so characteristic of this group. They therefore present a general similarity in microscopic features; there are, however, certain individual characteristics, such as the form and dimensions of particular cells, which serve for the identification of the various pulps. Where such occur they will be indicated. [Illustration: FIG. 10.] ESPARTO.—_Stipa tenacissima_ and _Lygeum Spartum_. Order, _Gramineæ_. Bast fibres of fibro-vascular bundles. Length, 1·5 mm.; diameter, 0·012 mm.; ratio, 125. Illustrated in Figs. 10, 11. In Fig. 10, the fibro-vascular {56} bundles _f_ are seen spread throughout the interior of the leaf, but the intervals, instead of being occupied by parenchyma, with large cells and thin walls, are filled with a compact mass of fine solid fibres _f′_; _e_, external epidermis; _e′_, internal epidermis; mag. 100. In Fig. 11, _a_ is a section of a group of fibres; _b_, fibres seen longitudinally; _c_, ends; mag. 300. [Illustration: FIG. 11.] Microscopic features.—Short, smooth, cylindrical, uniform in diameter, central canal very small, extremities rounded, truncated and bifurcated. Section.—Minute, generally oval, sometimes polygonal; central cavity represented by a point.