WORDS WHICH CONVEY ERRONEOUS IDEAS 223 



so-called mad dogs. A dog that is rabid does not dread 

 water; he will lap it or even swim in it. 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. This is a curious corruption of 

 the Italian name, girasole articiocco, which means sunflower 

 artichoke. It has no relation to the city of Jerusalem. 

 The plant is a native of this continent. 



RICE PAPER. The well-known Chinese rice paper, as 

 it is called, is not a paper at all but a thin slice of the pith 

 of a herbaceous Chinese plant (the Aralia papyrifera). 

 The pith forms a cylinder, and with a long and very sharp 

 knife a slice is cut from the surface, the cut going round 

 and round in a spiral. The moist slice of tissue is thus 

 unrolled from the cylinder of pith and dried under slight 

 pressure just enough to cause it to remain flat. It 

 cannot be written on with an ordinary pen and ink. The 

 Chinese use fine brushes, and I have in my possession some 

 beautiful water-color paintings done by a Chinese artist 

 on this material. This "rice paper" forms a beautiful 

 object under the microscope, as it shows the form and 

 arrangement of the cells very clearly under a low power. 

 Paper may be made and has been made from rice straw, 

 but it is an article very different from the real Chinese 

 "rice paper." 



SEALING WAX. Good sealing wax, as used now, con- 

 tains no wax. But originally it consisted of almost pure 

 wax, and the seal was not affixed to the document as is 

 now done. The old seals were huge lumps of wax on which 

 the seal was impressed, and they were attached to the 

 document by means of a ribbon which passed through the 

 seal. Our modern sealing wax is composed largely of 

 shellac. 



SPARROWGRASS. This word is obviously a corruption 



