A xylanolytic bacterial strain, MX47, was isolated from rotting plant matter in soil. The strain was aerobic and gram positive, and grew between pH 6.0 and 11.0. Cells were susceptible to thiostrepton and chloramphenicol. The major fatty acids (>3%) comprised 64.55% of iso-$C_{15:0}$, 22.76% of anteiso-$C_{15:0}$, and 3.92% of iso-$C_{17:0}$. The G/C content of the DNA was 44.15 mol%. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). Searches for 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity as well as phylogenetic analyses strongly suggested that the strain should be classified to the genus Bacillus. However, its biochemical characteristics, including acid production and enzyme activities, are different from those of other Bacillus strains in the same clade, and therefore, we propose the name Bacillus sp. MX47.