28 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
of Formosa, where it is said to form large forests. The bark and 
rind are, previous to exportation, stripped from the pith, which is then 
called Bok-shung. 
The iron knife commonly used for cutting this pith weighs about 
21 lbs., and is of the roughest and coarsest workmanship,* and per- 
haps not one blade in twenty is sufficiently well tempered to be advan- 
tageously used. In cutting, the knife is kept quite steady, the cylin- 
drical pith being moved round and round against the edge of the knife, 
which is just inserted into the substance, and thus a leaf or sheet is 
-formed resembling the most delicate paper, but rather thick in sub- 
stance. When brought quickly from the workman’s hands the paper 
is in a damp state. It may have been rendered so, in order to facilitate 
the smoothing and pressing. 
At Chang-chew, the large city of which Amoy is the sea-port, there 
is only one man who can cut this paper. This person ran away from his 
master in Formosa, and refuses to teach his trade except for a premium 
of 60 dollars. 
It is said that there isa neat method of joining this paper when 
broken, and that it is chiefly made from the smaller pieces of the Bok- 
shung, and that the larger pieces are used in medicine in the same way 
as Epsom salts. 5 "ps d 
It is in vain to conjecture, from the pith alone, to what plant or tree 
this exquisitely beautiful substance belongs. The vulgar opinion still 
generally prevails, that, because it bears the name of Rice-paper, it is 
manufactured from Rice; but the slightest inspection with a micro- 
scope exhibits the exquisitely delicate medullary portion of a dicotyle- 
donous stem. Again, from an affinity with the well-known Shola T of 
the East Indies, many have supposed, and even Chinese travellers have 
declared, that Rice-paper is made from this, the Æschynomene paludosa. 
But a comparison of the two will clearly show the difference. Both 
are light and spongy ; but the Shola is far less delicate than the Bok- 
shung, and is always exported “peeled,” the external coatings being 
removed; whereas the Shola is always sent covered with its thin brown 
* The model (of wood) sent would indicate this. It has a very broad straight 
ae - S — straight handle, and is more like a small bill hok (wanting the 
t = which floats and buoys for fishermen, and the very light hats of Sincapore, 
are made, 
