62 EAMBLES OF A NATUEAIIST. [Ch. IV. 



cated structure according to the position of the occupant. 

 The ordinary merchant has a simple tomb, with a rectan- 

 gular stone tablet in the centre, inscribed with Chinese 

 characters in red and black ; while the tombs of the Man- 

 darins are often extensive structures, in which the Hmbs of 

 the omega are enlarged into fantastic and elaborate copings 

 of stone, ornamented with statues and carvings. The poor 

 are satisfied with a simple mound and small sculptured 

 headstone, or even less ; though such is the veneration for 

 ancestry, that the poorest usually find means to secure some 

 memorial of their deceased parents. 



Upon these hills grows in considerable abundance the 

 Eice-paper plant (Aralia papyrifera) ; and from this place it 

 is largely exported to China for the purpose of making upon 

 the prepared paper those brUliant colourings for which the 

 Chinese are so renowned. It is a small but handsome 

 plant, the stein growing to the height of from 4 to 6 feet, 

 and then giving off by long footstalks a number of hand- 

 some large digitated leaves of a dark green colour, but 

 whitish beneath, which spread out sometimes 4 or 5 feet on 

 either side. For a long time the source of rice-paper was 

 a mystery, and its name indicates the common fallacy as to 

 its origin ; but an examination with the microscope could not 

 fail to detect the large cellular substance of which it is really 

 composed, namely, the little-altered pith of a plant. This 

 pith is of a snowy whiteness, and occupies the whole of the 

 cylindrical stem, more particularly at its upper portion, 

 becoming smaller near the base. I never found any hollow 

 centre in the pith, although it is said the Chinese them- 

 selves call it the Tung-tsau, or hollow plant; nor did I 

 observe any specimens in the neighbourhood of Tam-suy 

 more than 6 feet high, although the Chinese accounts make 



