82 Chronicles of Sciemee. [Jan., 



straight throughout their length, and are usually cut into pieces of 

 about nine inches long, and with a straight stick inserted at one end 

 and hammered on the ground, the pith is forced out with a jerk at 

 the other end. The pith is then inserted into straight, hollow bam- 

 boos, where it swells, and dries straight. If too short to form the 

 required breadth of paper, several bits are inserted into a hollow 

 bamboo, and, by rods inserted at both open ends of the bamboo, 

 pressed together until dry. By this process, the short bits are forced 

 to adhere together and form one long straight piece of the required 

 length. Thus paper of almost any size can be procured. The knife 

 used in paring the pith into paper is in shape not unlike a butcher's 

 chopper. It is well sharpened on a stone, and when not used, kept 

 with the edge in a wooden groove, held firm to it by two strings round 

 the wood and the knife. Before using it, the edge receives a fresh 

 touch up on a small block of wood, usually a piece of the timber of 

 Machilus ramosa, shaped like a large hone. The block on which the 

 pith is cut consists of a smooth brick or burnt clay tile, with a narrow 

 piece of brass on a rim of paper pasted at each edge, on which the 

 knife is laid, and is consequently a little raised above the bare tile 

 itself. The block is laid flat on a table, and the dried pith rolled on 

 it with the fingers of the left hand, and then the knife laid on the 

 brass rims with its edge towards the pith, its handle being held by the 

 right hand. As the knife is advanced leftwards by the right hand, 

 the pith is rolled in the same direction, but more slowly, by the fingers 

 of the left. The paring thus goes on continuously, until the inner 

 pith, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is left, resembling some- 

 what the vertebral column of a very small shark, and breaking into 

 similar concave-sided joints. This is used by the Chinese as an 

 aperient medicine. The paring produces a smooth continuous scroll 

 about 4 feet long, the first 6 inches of which are transversely grooved 

 and cut off as useless. The rest shows a fine white sheet. The sheets 

 as they are cut are placed one upon another and pressed for some time, 

 and then cut into squares of the required size. The small squares made 

 at Formosa are usually dyed different colours, and manufactured into 

 artificial flowers for the adornment of the hair of the native ladies, 

 and very excellent imitations of flowers they make. The sheets most 

 usiially offered for sale, plain and undyed, are about 3} inches square, 

 and are sold in packets of 100 eaGh, at rather less than one penny a 

 packet, or a bundle of five packets for fourpence. The larger-sized 

 paper is made to order, and is usually exported to Canton, whence the 

 grotesque but richly-tinted rice paper paintings have long attracted 

 the curiosity of Europeans. 



i 



Dr. Hepp describes a new genus of Lichen, under the name of 

 Gfuepinia, after Professor Guepin, of Anjou, who first found it. Gue- 

 pinia polyspora of Hepp is the Endocarpon Guepini of Mongeot. It 

 was collected on Gneiss rocks near Meran, in Switzerland, in Novem- 

 ber, 1863, by Dr. Milde. Under the microscope, Gucpinia shows 

 characteristic spores, which exist to the number of 100 in one ascus, 

 whilst Endocarpon (a genus to which Fries, Eabinhost, Schrerer, and 



