44 



ment of summer, the bamboo shoots are cut off when about six 

 or seven inches thick, and thrown into a lime pit to steep for 

 about a month. They are then taken out, washed clean, and 

 bleached every day till they are of the purest white ; after which 

 they are dried in the sun, pounded small and passed through a 

 very fine sieve, and the finest and whitest part of the powder se- 

 lected for use. To this is added the best white cotton of Loo 

 Chow ten times bowed (or bolted), the very light cotton which 

 is uppermost being used. 



Rice water made from the whitest rice being mixed with these 

 two ingredients, the whole is taken up with a mould made of 

 bamboo screen of the size required and then applied to the heated 

 wall to dry. This forms the whitest and finest Kang Yucca 

 paper. 



THE IVORY-PALM NUT (Phytelephas macrocarpa.) 



A very beautiful vegetable substance, closely resembling ivory, 

 has for some years been employed in England by turners and 

 workers in wood and ivory, for the manufacture of heads of canes, 

 umbrellas, thimbles, &c, and toys of various kinds ; and rounded 

 nuts about the size of a large medlar, with one end turned off to 

 show the albumen (that portion which so much resembles ivory), 

 are sold in shops and bazaars as the fruit which affords this very 

 singular material. Ruiz and Pavon, and Humboldt discovered the 

 plant which produces these nuts in several parts of Peru, and have 

 described its botanical characters, the two former correctly, as a 

 Palm {Phytelephas macrocarpa), the latter as of the family of the 

 Screw-Pines (Pandanea). From the banks of the Magdalena in 

 Columbia, the seeds or nuts have for some time constituted an im- 

 portant article of commerce into Europe, to be used as ivory. The 

 turner again, employs the chips and shavings for a very useful pur- 

 pose, for they are sold for making blanc-mange. The rarity of this 

 Palm, and a desire to possess it in the stoves of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens of Kew, induced the Director to send a Botanical Col- 

 lector, Mr. Purdie, to the Magdalena, for the purpose of intro- 

 ducing the plant alive to Europe. Mr. Purdie has been successful. 

 The pages of the Supplement to the Botanical Magazine will 

 shortly contain several particulars of Mr. Purdie's mission to New 

 Grenada. At present we must content ourselves with giving 

 extracts from his last letter, giving the account of his visit to the 

 locality of this Palm, or " Taipm" as it is called by the natives, 

 and we are happy to add that germinating seeds and living 

 plants safely reached the Royal Gardens in October, 1845. — En. 



