firs and hardwood sources such as oaks eucalyptuses poplars beeches and aspens as used herein the term u201c fiber u201d or u201c fibrous u201d is meant to refer to a particulate material wherein the length to diameter ratio of such particulate material is 10 or greater it is generally desired that the cellulosic fibers used herein be wettable as used herein the term u201c wettable u201d is meant to refer to a fiber or material which exhibits a water in air contact angle of less than 90 u00b0 suitably the cellulosic fibers useful in the present invention exhibit a water in air contact angle from about 10 u00b0 to about 50 u00b0 and more suitably from about 20 u00b0 to about 30 u00b0 suitably a wettable fiber refers to a fiber which exhibits a water in air contact angle of less than 90 u00b0 at a temperature between about 0 u00b0 c and about 100 u00b0 c and suitably at ambient conditions such as about 23 u00b0 c suitable cellulosic fibers are those which are naturally wettable however naturally nonwettable fibers can also be used it is possible to treat the fiber surfaces by an appropriate method to render them more or less wettable when surface treated fibers are employed the surface treatment is desirably nonfugitive that is the surface treatment desirably does not wash off the surface of the fiber with the first liquid insult or contact for the purposes of this application a surface.