But the manufacture has been carried to a far greater extent in the South of France. In the _Journal de Physique_, _Tom._ 30. _4to._ An. 1787. p. 294., is a paper by _Broussonet Sur la culture et les usages économiques du Genêt d’Espagne_. A minute and highly curious account is here given of the mode of preparing the fibres, which is practised by the inhabitants of all the villages in the vicinity of Lodêve in Bas Languedoc. The shrub abounds on the barren hills of that region, and all that the people do to favor its growth is to sow the seed in the driest places, where scarce any other plant can vegetate. After being cut, the twigs are dried in the sun, then beaten, macerated in water, and treated in the same way as flax or hemp (See Zincke’s process, Chapter XI.). The coarser thread is used to make bags for holding the legumes, corn, &c.; the finer for making _sheets_, _napkins_, and _shirts_. The peasants in this district use _no other kind of linen_, not being acquainted with the culture either of flax or hemp. The ground is too dry and unproductive to suit these plants. The linen made of the Spanish Broom is as supple as that made from hemp; it might be even as beautiful as real linen, if more pains were taken with it. It becomes whiter, the oftener it is washed. It is rarely sold, each family making it for its own use. The stalks, after the rind has been separated from them, are tied in small bundles, and sold for lighting fires. Let us now see how far Pliny’s account of the Spartum agrees with these representations of the mode of manufacturing Broom-bark. The Spartum, of which he speaks, is “_the rush of a dry soil_,” a description far more applicable to the young twigs of the Spanish Broom than to the grassy stems of the Stipa Tenacissima, or indeed to any other plant. His Spartum was used for making fires and for giving light (_hinc ignes facesque_), purposes for which the Stipa Tenacissima is not at all adapted, but to both of which the stems and twigs of the Spanish Broom are applied. The tender tops of Pliny’s Spartum served as food for animals. According to Trombelli sheep and goats feed upon the Spanish Broom in Italy; but we cannot find that this is the case with the Stipa Tenacissima. Pliny’s Spartum, after being steeped in water, was beaten in order to be made useful (_Hoc autem tunditur, ut fiat utile_); and this process was quite necessary in preparing the twigs of Spanish Broom, whereas the Stipa Tenacissima is most commonly manufactured without going through any such process. Clusius indeed states (_l. c._) that by macerating it in water like flax, and then drying and beating it, the Spaniards of Valencia make a kind of shoes, which they call _Alpergates_, also cords, and other finer articles; but, at the same time, he says, that it is made into mats, baskets, ropes, and cables, merely by being dried, platted, and twisted, without any other operation. The same account is given by Townsend, who visited