316 Scient/Jic Notices — MisceUaneons. [APRit, 



genera according to the fancy of the purchaser ; no systematic 

 arrangement being adopted in the work. The explanations of 

 the figures are short and confined to the descriptions of new 

 genera, the locahties of species, and the reasons that have 

 induced the author, in some instances, to adopt new names, 

 who reserves more ample details for a future work, which, from 

 the manner he has executed this, we hope will not be long 

 before it sees the light. The place which each genus occupies 

 in Cuvier's Regne Animal is given, and the primary section, 

 class, order, and family, respectively denoted by a period, colon, 

 semicolon, and comma annexed, the tribe being without any 

 mark. Thus the name of the genus Ixa is followed by the words 

 (Articulata. Crustacea : decapoda ; brachyura, Canceres). We 

 shall only add, that we wish the authors of modern works on 

 natural history would write as elegant Latin as that in which 

 Mr. Konig has couched the short preface at the beginning of his 

 book. 



5. On the Structure of Rice Paper. 



The substance commonly known by the name oi^ rice paper is 

 brought from China in small pieces, about two inches square, 

 and tinged with various colours. It has been for some time used 

 as an excellent substitute for drawing paper, in the representa- 

 tion of richly coloured insects, and other objects of natural 

 history, and has been employed in this city with still more 

 success in the manufacture of artificial flowers. 

 . Although rice paper has a general resemblance to a substance 

 formed by art, yet a very slight examination of it with the 

 microscope is sufficient to nidicate a vegetable organization. In 

 order to observe and trace the nature of its structure, it was 

 necessary to give it some degree of transparency, and I expected 

 to accomplish this by the usual process of immersing it in water 

 or in oil of the same refractive power. This operation, however, 

 instead of increasing the transparency, rendered the film more 

 opaque, and suggested the probability that, like tabasheer, it 

 was filled with air; and that the augmentation of its opacity 

 arose, as in the case of that siliceous concretion, from the partial 

 absorption of the fluid. In order to expel the air from the cells 

 in which it seemed to be lodged, I exposed a piece of the rice 

 paper to the influence of boihng olive oil. The heat immediately 

 drove the air in small bubbles from the cells near the margin ; 

 but it was with some difficulty that it was forced to quit the 

 interior parts of the film. As the olive oil had now taken the 

 place of the air, and filled all the cells, the film became perfectly 

 transparent, and displayed its vesicular structure when placed 

 under a powerful microscope. 



The rice paper consists of long hexagonal cells, whose length 

 is parallel to the surface of the film ; these cells are filled with 



