91 



it off with the thumb-nail. I have one of the lamina in my poclcct- 

 book measuring in length eight inches and three quarters, and trans- 

 versely six inches and a half. The examination of this, even in an 

 undressed state, completely identifies itwith what is called Rice Paper. 

 ' '' I must not forget to give you the native name of the plant, which 

 in Bengalee is SJiola, commonly pronounced Sola. Dr. Roxbui^h 

 considered the plant as annual, I believe. The foliage and other 

 parts of the plant, where water is wanting, die down to the roots ; 

 but where water is plentiful, the stems remain and branch out afresh 

 in the proper season /■* 



The volumes of drawinos of Indian nlants above alluded to. hnd 



been previously consigned to our use by General Hardwicke ; and they 

 contain a complete figure of the plant, with flower, fruit, and a portion 

 of that part of the stem which is thus employed for making rice paper. 



4 



These will be engraved and published in the next Number of this 

 Miscellanv. 



drawingr 



Mschyn 



to be reason to think that is th 

 lagenaria f of Loureiro, which g 



agrees with his figure of that plant in the splendid series of unpub- 

 lished drawings in the possession of the Honourable the East India 

 Company, copies from which we have now by us. But there appears 



5 same species with ^schynomene 

 ows in Cochinchina. The charac- 

 ters entirely agree ; and Loureiro attributes to his plant, uses some- 

 what similar. " Caulis" he says '" spongiosus et facile cedens, ac 

 elastice resiliens commode aptatur ad obturandas lagenas, defectio 

 suberis, quo regio ilia caret." Again ; this species is, and in my 

 opinion justly, united by DeCandolle at the suggestion of Dr. Wal- 

 lich, with Mschijnomene aspera of Linnaeus ; which name we there- 

 fore prefer should be retained. 



♦ 



In the drawing and MS. CataIo2;ue at the India House it is called aquatka : 



in the printed '^Hortus Benghalensis^ Mschynomene pahidosa, Shola and KathrShola^ 



Benghalee. 



t Hedysarum lagenaria, Roxb. Hort. Benghal. Fhool-Shola^ Benghalee 



