Barilla

Barilla, an impure carbonate of soda, procured from plants which grow in salt-marshes or other places near the sea; it forms a considerable article of commerce, being used in the manufacture of soap and of glass, and for other purposes in the arts. The greatest quantities of barilla are produced in Spain and the Balearic Islands; but the Canary Islands, Italy, and France also contribute a part. It is procured by burning the plants, much in the same way that seaweeds once were largely burned on the coasts of Scotland for kelp. The Spanish barilla is most esteemed, especially that produced near Alicante, where it is chiefly obtained from the Salsola sativa, a plant of the natural order Chenopodiaceæ. This plant is cultivated in grounds close by the sea, embanked on the side nearest it, and furnished with floodgates, through which the salt water is occasionally admitted. It is cut in September, dried in small heaps, and then burned in a hole in the ground. Other species of Salsola (Salt-wort), as S. tragus and S. kali (the latter, a common native of the shores of Britain), are also burned for barilla, although they yield it in smaller quantity than S. sativa. Barilla is made in France from Salicornia herbacea or annua (Glass-wort), another of the Chenopodiaceæ, plentiful also in salt-marshes on the shores of Britain and other parts of Europe. The manufacture of barilla has greatly declined, from the fact that soda can now be made artificially from common salt. See SALT-WORT.