THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



383 



The wood is composed of concentric zones lying one 

 within the other, and formed of vessels and fibres. 



In the centre of the stem is found the pith, composed 

 almost exclusively of cellular tissue. It is with very thin 

 sheets of this structure, cut by means of a sharp knife, 

 that the Chinese make the beautiful paper on which they 

 paint, and which is incorrectly called rice-paper.^ 



The second type of stem belongs to the palms. This 

 stem, which bears the name of stipes, is usually cylindrical, 

 and is Avithout branches or bark."^ 



coveiy of the books of Numii which were found in the tomb of this legislator, 

 are so much evidence in favour of this view. An indication of the great antiquity 

 of the use of papyrus is also found in Herodotus, who asserts that he saw drawn 

 up on this substance a catalogue of 330 kings who had preceded Sesostris. 



Papyrus was employed even in Gaul up to the commencement of the seventh 

 century, and in order to preserve the manuscripts in books, after every four, five, 

 or six leaves of paper, two leaves of vellum were intercalated, on which the text 

 was continued. In the end the papyrus was replaced by cotton-paper, charta 

 homhycina, also called diarta damascena. The invention of paper made from 

 rags, which M. Goury ascribes to about the twelfth century, probably caused the 

 disuse of cotton-paper. 



1 Eice-paper is nothing else than fine layers, cut with gTeat skill, of the pith 

 of the jSschijnomene paluclosa, a plant of the family of the Leguminosas. 



^ This sort of stem has no distinct concentric layers or medullary rays. The 



m9ik 



mmi 



207. Pahn -Horizontal Section of Stem. 



2(18. Palm — Longitudinal Section of Stern. 



youngest formation takes place towards the centre instead of at the circumference, 

 as in exogens ; and the pith p (6g. 207) does not occupy the centre, but is inter- 



49 



