BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 351 
Mr. John Smith, who proceeds to England by this mail, has kindly 
taken charge of a packet containing eight hundred sheets of the Rice- 
paper, in the state in which it is exposed for sale, which he will deliver 
to you, and he will also give an eye occasionally to the living plants.” 
[The bundles of paper are safely deposited in our museum, but the 
growing plants above mentioned were received quite dead.] 
** Since I last wrote,” observes Mr. Bowring in a subsequent letter, 
“I have received from Amoy an enormous supply of the pith, some of 
the best pieces of which I will send you with the artificial flowers. 
The instruments* which are said to be employed in preparing the 
paper have also reached me, but they are such common, rough-looking 
articles that I suspect them to be merely those used in cutting down 
the plants in the woods. As I find that none of the tea-ships are likely 
to touch here at present, on their way from Whampoa, I have made up 
my mind to send two more of the plants overland, and I now enclose 
the bill of lading for the two cases. We have just heard from Fuhchow 
that nothing has been yet gleaned there respecting the plant. The — 
chief mandarin of that place had, on learning that my father had de- — 
sired inquiries to be made on the subject, despatched a messenger to 
Formosa to obtain live plants and gather information ; but it is feared 
that the junk in which he embarked has met with some accident, as — 
nothing has been heard of it.” 
Mr. CHARLES Wricut’s Plants of New Mexico. — F 
Our friends will be interested in knowing that Mr. Charles Wright 
has continued to prosecute his botanical researches in New Mexico with 
eminent success, extending his journeys to the borders of Mexico Pro- 
per. The first part of the sets collected in 1851 and 1852 are now 
ready for distribution. It extends to Compositæ inclusive, and Dr. Asa 
Gray has already commenced printing the memoir, in which they will 
* The instrument here alluded to, two of which are deposited in the Rice-paper col- 
lection of the Kew Museum, is like a small hatchet, or an implement used by the 
peasantry for heading and tailing turnips, rather than one required for cutting the 
cylinder of pith into the delicate sheets of ; yet our drawing, represented at 
Vol. IL. Tab. IX. of this Journal, shows such to be the use made of it, if their drawings 
and the accompanying descriptions can be depended upon. In those drawings, how- 
ever, let it be observed that the size of the pith is monstrously exagg, 
