GRASS CLOTH PLANT. 75 



possess a strengthening quality ; the seed vessel 

 to cure the colic, to facilitate parturition, and to 

 counteract the effects of poison."* 



The Arachis hi/pogwa, or ground nuts, are sold 

 in great abundance in the bazaars, and about 

 the streets of Macao and Canton, and are much 

 eaten bythe Chinese, who also extract an oil from 

 the seeds for a variety of purposes. 



Mr. Beale presented me with drawings by a 

 Chinese artist, of the plants from which the pith, 

 used in the manufacture of that kind of paper 

 known to Europeans under the denomination of 

 rice-paper, and that from which the fibre used 

 in the manufacture of the grass-cloth is pro- 

 cured. I suspect that the fibre used for the 

 Manilla senimaya, or grass-cloth, is not pro- 

 duced from the Musa textilis, as is commonly 

 supposed, which point has not, although often 

 asserted by writers, been actually decided ; it is 

 more probably produced from a plant similar to 

 that used by the Chinese, which is Corchorus, 

 probably capsulains. 



The following engraving is from the Chinese 

 drawing. 



The pith plant is procured from Oan, naam, 

 near the province of See, chuen, and is 

 named, in the language of the country, Toong, 

 * Abel's China, 4to. pp. 121, 122. 



