265 



THE RICE-PAPER PLAXT. 



That beautiful and delicate substance 

 called rice-paper, was for years known in 

 this country before we had any informa- 

 tion as to the plant by which it was pro- 

 duced, or the mode in which it was pre- 

 pared ; its very name denotes our igno- 

 rance. By the perseverance of Sir Wm, 

 Hooker, the indefatigable director of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the point 

 was at length cleared up, and in the 

 " Journal of Botany " for 1850 we find 

 the first authentic information on the 

 subject. In a letter from J. II. Layton, 

 Esq., H. B. Majesty's consul at Amoy, 

 China, we find that " the substance com- 

 monly called ' rice-paper ' is made by the 

 Chinese from the pith of a plant or tree, 

 which grows principally in the swampy 

 grounds, in the province of Sam-swi, in 

 the northern part of the island of For- 

 mosa, where it is said to form large 

 forests. The bark and rind are, previous to 

 exportation, stripped from the pith, which 

 is then called Pook-shung. A large heavy 

 knife is used in cutting the rice-paper. 

 The knife being kept quite steady, the 

 cylindrical pith is moved round and round 

 against the edge of it, which is just in- 

 serted into the substance, and thus a leaf 

 or sheet is formed resembling the most 

 delicate paper, but rather thick in sub- 

 stance. 



" Bice-paper is the material upon which 

 the Chinese artists execute their most 

 finished paintings. It is largely employed 

 in the manufacture of artificial flowers, 

 and the chips and fragments are used in 

 medicine in the same way as Epsom 

 salts." 



In 1852 the living plant was intro- 

 duced, and until lately has been one of 

 the rarest of stove plants. But, within 

 the last year or two, it has flowered, and 

 produced good seed; and it has also been 

 discovered that it can be rapidly propa- 

 gated by pieces of the root, so that it is 

 becoming more plentiful, and the price 

 consequently, much less. 



Aralia papyrifera, the rice-paper plant, 

 usually runs up with a straight stem, ten, 

 twelve, or more feet in height, and bear- 

 ing at the apex a crown of some eight or 

 ten large palmate leaves, two and a-half 

 feet in diameter ; these are similar in 

 form to those of the well-known castor-oil 

 plant. The individual flowers are very 



minute and inconspicuous, but are pro- 

 duced in such immense numbers that the 

 plant, when in bloom, has a very imposing 

 appearance. The compound panicles, of 

 which three or five are generally produced 

 at once, are usually three feet in length. 

 The young wood, leaves, and foot-stalks 

 are covered with a rusty-coloured kind of 

 woolly substance, which, when examined 

 under the microscope (for which purpose 

 it makes a very pretty object), it is found 

 to be composed of minute hairs, arranged 

 in the form of a star. 



Our object in drawing attention to 

 this plant is to show that it is usually 

 kept in too strong a heat, and to point it 

 out as a great addition to our out-of-door 

 ornamental plants during summer. While 

 kept in the stove, it was always considered 

 a very troublesome plant to keep clean. 

 Insects of all kinds were fond of the plant, 

 and found good shelter in the woolly co- 

 vering of the leaves, and among the sti- 

 pules and bracts at their base ; but this 

 inconvenience is greatly reduced if the 

 plant be grown in a cooler atmosphere. I 

 would recommend that the young plant 

 should be pushed on rapidly until it has 

 attained the height of about two feet, then 

 keep it comparatively dry and dormant 

 in some warm corner of the greenhouse 

 during winter. Start it into growth early 

 in the spring, either in a hot-bed or in the 

 stove or vinery ; and as soon as the nights 

 become warm, plant it out in some shel- 

 tered nook on the lawD. If the soil be 

 rich, and if, during dry weather, it obtains 

 a little assistance in the way of weak 

 manure-water, it will well repay the 

 trouble bestowed upon it. Those who 

 have duplicate plants might try the expe- 

 riment of leaving one of them out of doors 

 during winter to prove its hardiness. A 

 specimen of it, which was planted out near 

 London last summer, was somewhat care- 

 lessly taken up in the autumn, some of 

 the large roots were broken off and allowed 

 to remain in the soil ; this spring they all 

 made separate plants, and started up 

 freely. We all recollect what the winter 

 of 1859-60 was — what might we not ex- 

 pect, therefore, under more favourable 

 circumstances ? Whether it prove hardy 

 or not, we have at least found in the rice- 

 paper plant a beautiful addition to our fine 

 foliage plants for the open air in summer. 



