AMADOU. 295 



Rice Paper. — Another cellular substance, though very 

 different from the last. This beautiful material has given 

 rise to much discussion ; the common opinion was that, as 

 its name implied, it was made of rice; the slightest micro- 

 scopic examination however proved that it was a fine cellu- 

 lar tissue. It has been attributed to many plants, but it is 

 now, through the indefatigable perseverance of the officers 

 of the Kew Gardens, decided to be the produce of Aralta 

 papyri/era {Nat. Ord. Araliacete), called in China, Taccada. 

 The pith, which is about an inch and a half in diameter, is 

 freed from the external parts of the stem, and then pared 

 in the same way the ancients employed in preparing their 

 paper from the pithy stem of the papyrus rush (Papyrus 

 antiauonmi). After the mass has been carefully pared to 

 the centre, it is flattened out and pressed by heavy weights 

 placed upon it ; when thoroughly dried under pressure, it 

 retains its perfect flatness. Its use is chiefly for water- 

 colour paintings of flowers, fruit, and insects, which have an 

 exquisite effect upon rice-paper. It is also employed for a 

 few other ornamental purposes. 



Amadou, German Tinder. — This cellular substance con- 

 sists of slices cut from the large parasitic fungus Boletus 

 igniarius (Nat. Ord. Fungi) : it grows in large masses upon 



