348 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Gardens of Kew*. The results of all the well-directed effortst to as- 
certain the true plant, commencing with those of John Reeves, Esq., 
some thirty years ago, to the present time, point to one and the same 
plant, viz. our Aralia ? papyrifera. 
A number however of the * Journal of the Agricultural and Hortieul- 
tural Society of India’ (Part 2 of vol. viii.) has just been most kindly 
communicated to us by Dr. Falconer, which contains a memoir “ On 
the Plant yielding the Rice-Paper of China, by W. T. Lewis, Esq." 
* I have frequently," says Mr. Lewis, “remarked the similarity to 
Rice-paper of a substance in common use among the Malays and 
Siamese in making their artificial flowers, and on examination am con- 
vinced that I am right in conjecturing that it is the same. I have 
therefore procured some of the plant, which is very abundant on all the 
sea-coasts of the Malayan Archipelago, and find it to be the Scevola 
Taccada of Roxburgh.”— Only one or two Chinese of this place 
(Penang) have been able to give!me any certain information of the 
paper, and from their accounts I am enabled to afford a pretty satis- 
factory description of the process of preparing the pith for use.” He 
then proceeds to say, * It is not plentiful on the coast of China, but is 
imported from the island of Formosa in pieces four to six feet in 
length. The outer ‘parts (bark and wood, greatly resembling the 
Elder plant) are taken off, when a sharp instrument, from ten to twelve 
inches long and about four inches broad, is employed for slicing the 
pith carefully—and by an experienced hand, as this is requisi 
then flattened out." 
'The above is very nearly the whole of Mr. Lewis's communication ; 
and from this, although that gentleman is aware that the stems are im- 
ported from Formosa, it does not appear that he has ever examined or 
compared the s¢ems and the foliage of the two: but rather that he has 
formed his opinion on a comparison of the piths exclusively. 
. ..* One of these, at the request of Dr. Bowring, has been presented to his Grace 
. the Duke of Devonshire. 
+ We are here happy to have the opportunity of noticing the exertions of George 
Bennett, Esq., author of the ‘Wanderings in New South Wales, Singapore, and 
China’ While correcting the present sheet for the press I have the pleasure to re- 
. ceive a letter from Mr. Bennett, dated Sydney, June 28, 1852, referring me to . 
: É 77, vol. ii., of the above work, where he has related the assistance he received in 
__ 1834 from J. Beale, Esq., of Macao, in endeavouring to ascertain the plant yielding 
the Rice-paper. He there gives a woodcut of a drawing procured, professing to be 
the plant, which the late Mr. Lambert and Mr. David Don considered was probably 
_a species of Aralia. 
