novel branch of industry carried on in Silesia, combining so much of
ingenuity and utility, as to render a summary of the information very
acceptable to those who are seeking for new sources of employment or
of profit. It appears that in the neighbourhood of Breslau, on a
domain known as Humboldt Mead, there are two establishments alike
remarkable: one is a factory for converting the leaves or spines of
the pine-tree into a sort of cotton or wool; in the other, the water
which has served in the manufacture of this vegetable wool, is made
use of as salutary baths for invalids. They were both erected
under the direction of Herr von Pannewitz, one of the chief
forest-inspectors, and the inventor of a chemical process, by means of
which a fine filamentous substance can be obtained from the long and
slender leaves of the pine. This substance has been called _Holz
wolle_, wood-wool, from a similarity in its quality to that of
ordinary wool; it may be curled, felted, or spun in the same way.

The _Pinus sylvestris_, or Scotch fir, from which this new product is
derived, has been long esteemed in Germany for its many valuable
qualities; and instead of being left to its natural growth, is
cultivated in plantations of forest-like extent. In this way, many
parts of a vast, dreary, sandy surface are turned to good account, for
the tree grows rapidly on a light soil, imparting to it solidity and
consistency, and affords shelter to the oak, which, under such
favourable circumstances, acquires such vigour of development as to
outgrow its protector. About the fortieth year of its growth, the pine
yields considerable quantities of resin; and the value of the wood for
building purposes, and for constructions immersed in water, are well
known. Mr Pannewitz has, however, added another to its list of useful
applications; and if the leaves can be employed as described, the
_Pinus sylvestris_ may become an object of culture in countries where
it is now neglected.

The acicular leaves of firs, pines, and coniferae in general, are
composed of a bundle, or fasciculus, as a botanist would say, of
extremely fine and tenacious fibres, which are surrounded and held
together by thin pellicles of a resinous substance. If this substance
be dissolved by a process of coction, and the employment of certain
chemical reagents, the fibres can then be easily separated, washed,
and cleansed from all foreign matter. According to the mode of
treatment, the w