350 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
we think, stronger evidence for considering to be an Araliaceous plant, 
for we possess perfect dried stems, the dried foliage, the pith in various 
stages of preparation, and now the living plant. We are nevertheless 
grateful to Mr. Lewis for having, as Dr. Falconer says, “ awakened at- 
tention to a material of the Malay Islands which has been long over- 
looked, and which is, assuredly, not inferior in texture to that of the far- 
famed Rice-paper.” We trust that our Kew Museum of vegetable pro- 
ducts may, through the kindness of our friends in India, soon possess as 
extensive and illustrative a collection of the ** Taccada’’ pith as it does 
of the Rice-paper. The living plant, the Scevola, we have long pos- 
sessed in the garden, from our great oriental contributor Dr. Wallich, 
and from the late Mr. Allan Cunningham, who introduced it from the 
northern shores of New Holland. From the observations of De Vriese, 
in his Memoir on the Goodenovieæ, there is reason to believe that 
Scævola Taccada of Roxburgh is not specifically distinct from S. Künigü, 
Vahl. 
We shall conclude our present notice of the Rice-paper by an extract 
from the recent letters of J. O. Bowring, Esq., Hong-Kong, which 
aecompanied the rooted plants. 
“Mr. Sullivan," he says, “ H.M. Consul at Amoy, is at present in 
Hong-Kong, staying with my father, but he is, I am sorry to say, in 
so weak a state that I have hitherto been unable to obtain any infor- 
mation of value regarding the plant, and I much doubt if he can really 
furnish any. The Chinese at Amoy tell the most extraordinary stories 
of the way in which the plant is procured ; yet Mr. Sullivan seems to 
think that this arises quite as much from ignorance as from a desire to 
deceive. The leaf of the plant resembles the dead one I saw last year. 
I send you the living plants in their original Chinese jars, as they are 
growing so well therein that I do not like to remove them; and I have 
had a couple of Ward's cases made, in which I hope they will travel 
“Ihave also obtained from Mr. Sullivan a quantity of the Rice- 
. paper made up in packets, as it is exposed for sale at Amoy, a number 
. of specimens of the pith, some of which is a foot long, and some arti- 
. ficial flowers made from this curious substance, A bundle of the Rice- 
| paper contains, or should contain, one hundred sheets, and sells for 35 
‘cash’ (five farthings, or thereabouts) each bundle, so that it is evident 
that the plant is produced in great profusion in the places of its growth. 
