Chap. XI. 



RICE-PAPER PLANT. 



233 



plant flowers at a later period of the year.* Nu- 

 merous small plants were coming througli tlie 

 ground in various directions, which a Chinese 

 soldier carefully dug up for me, and which I took 

 with me to Shanghae, and deposited them in 

 Mr. Beale's garden. These, with a few samples 

 of the largest stems I could find, have been sent 

 to England and India ; the latter will prove an 

 interesting addition to our museums of vegetable 

 productions. The proportion of pith in these 

 stems is very great, particularly near the top of 

 vigorous growing ones, and it is from this pure 

 white substance that the beautiful article errone- 

 ously called " rice-paper " is prepared. 



The Chinese call this plant the Tang-tsaou. 

 What it was, or to what part of the vegetable 

 kingdom it belonged, was long a mystery to bota- 

 nists, who were oftentimes sadly misled by imagi- 

 nary Chinese drawings, as some of those which 

 have been published will clearly show, now that 

 our knowledge has increased. Indeed the only 

 drawing I have seen in Europe, which has any 

 claim to be considered authentic, is that brought 

 from China by the late Mr. Reeves many years 

 ago, and which I have seen in the library of the 

 Horticultural Society of London. 



The Tung4saou is largely cultivated in many 

 parts of the island of Formosa, and with rice 

 and camphor forms one of the chief articles of 



* It flowers and seeds during the winter and spring months at 

 Hong-kong and Calcutta. 



