THE IVY FAMILY. 



363 



Chinese. Not long after the commerce of China was opened 

 to Europe it was ascertained that it came from the Island of 

 Formosa, which led Sir John Bo wring, then Governor of 

 Hong-Kong, to obtain plants from that island, one of which 

 arrived safely at Kew in 1853, and flowered in 1855 ; thus 

 proving it to be an Aralia. It is a small tree, attaining the 

 height of about 10 feet, with a stem from 3 to 4 inches in 

 diameter, the interior being full of white pith like the Elder. 

 It has soft, downy, palmate leaves, something like those of 

 the Plane Tree, growing on long footstalks, and produces a 

 somewhat erect panicled raceme of small flowers. The tree is 

 cut down in order to obtain the pith, which averages, accord- 

 ing to size, about 1 inch in diameter. It is divided into 

 pieces about 3 inches in length, and by the aid of a sharp 

 instrument is unrolled, forming a thin narrow sheet, and 

 constitutes Eice Paper, which is greatly used by the Chinese 

 for drawing figures of plants and animals, and also for making 

 artificial flowers. The plant requires the protection of a 

 greenhouse in this country ; but in warm countries, such 

 as New South Wales, it has already almost become in- 

 digenous. 



The family is well represented in hothouses by several 

 species of Panax, Aralia, Sciadophyllum, Gilihertia, Gastonia, 

 and two Cape of Good Hope species of Cussonia ; in the open 

 air by the Angelica tree (Aralia spinosa), a native of North 

 America; also the herbaceous species A. nudicauHs, and J.. 

 racemosa. In New Zealand it is represented by about 10 

 species, Aralia polaris being a bushy perennial 3 or 4 feet 

 high; A. crassifolia is a slender pole-like tree, 20 or more 

 feet in height, and is remarkable in having simple or tri- 

 foliate strap-like leaves, some a foot or more in length, and 

 about |- an inch in width. In Australia, Panax samhuci- 

 folia forms a small tree or bushy shrub. 



Botryodendron macrophyllum, a native of Norfolk Island, 

 has also a slender pole-like stem, 10 to 15 feet high, having 

 broad elliptical entire leaves, IJ to 2 feet in length, which a 

 celebrated traveller compares to a loose cabbage fixed on a 



