Owing to the presence of this large quantity of silica, and the extreme hardness of the stem when developed and matured, it has been found by all those who have hitherto experimentally treated "BAMBOO" that the only possible means of converting it into _Pulp_ for Paper-making, has been to subject it to long-continued boiling, or digesting, in very strong solutions of caustic alkali, at an elevated temperature--in other words, at or under a pressure of ten to eleven atmospheres (150 to 160 lb. pressure per square inch)--by which means a _Pulp_ has certainly been produced, but at a great cost, and the danger and practical difficulties of working under such high pressure, have deterred further progress in this direction. I have found that when the stems of "Bamboo," are cut down at an early stage of their growth, when the plant is full of sap, and before the cellulose or cellular tissue, and the lignine have become indurated, and silica deposited; while, in fact, so to speak, the plant may be termed a succulent vegetable, and before it has become converted into wood, that a very mild system of treatment in successive weak alkaline baths, at atmospheric pressure only, suffices to decompose and render soluble the mucilaginous and other extractive compounds combined naturally with the fibrous tissue of the plant, so that they may be readily eliminated, or separated therefrom, by subsequent washing, leaving the residuary fibres pure and free. A comparative illustration of the transitional stage of growth above referred to, showing the conversion of succulent vegetable fibrous tissue, into harsh woody fibre, may be remarked with "Asparagus," the young and green stems of which, are used as a delicacy for the table, a few weeks further growth converting them into hard woody fibre, which no amount of boiling would, or could, render palatable; the "Asparagus," indeed, has its parallel in the "_Bambusa Edulis_," a variety of "BAMBOO," the young stems of which are eaten and considered very nourishing. The "BAMBOO," being an _endogenous_ plant, (that is to say, growing from inside) composed mainly of fibrous tissue, combined with the ordinary sappy and other extractive matter common to all vegetable growth, the stems do not require the elaborate preparatory manipulation which is necessary to separate the fibrous, from the extraneous and woody matter, which in _exogenous_ plants (i. e. growing from, or on the outside) must be removed, as it is only the true fibre which is useable for Textile Manufactures. Such plants known to commerce as "FLAX," "HEMP," "JUTE," "RHEA," &c. &c., after having become mature, and being dried, have to undergo a process of retting, or steeping, followed by scutching and heckling, in order to separate the ultimate fibres from the woody stem and bark to which, while in their normal condition, they are attached.