166 
Miscellaneous Notices. 
£May 
2.-— China Rice Paper . 
To the Editor of Gleanings in Science. 
Sir, 
With reference to vour notice on the “China Rice Paper,” in No. 16, I 
may mention, on the authority of a friend, that the plant from which it was obtained, 
is really our Sola • In turning over some of Dr. Buchanan’s manuscript journal, 
I find the question nearly put beyond all doubt, as you will perceive by the follow- 
ing description of the plant, which I extract for you. 
The Sola is a plant much used both by fishermen, who employ it for floating 
their nets. in place of cork, and by the makers of artificial flowers, who are 
numerous in Bengal. Their work is indeed coarse, but the material is excellent, 
and seems to be the same with that of which the elegant artificial flowers of 
China are formed. In fact, nothing can more strongly resemble the structure of 
the petals of a flower than the pith of this plant, which I am persuaded would be 
a valuable acquisition to our artists in Europe. It might even be worth while to 
send some home as a trial. — This plant grows in tanks and marshes. The trunk, 
which remains under water, is 3 or 4 feet in length, and 3 inches in diameter.—It 
consists almost entirely of a fine grained very light white pith, which has a con- 
siderable adherence of parts, even when cut in very thin slices, and which can be 
dyed oi the brightest colours. For making ornaments, the plant must be cut be- 
tween the middle of October and that of November : what is procured after the 
maislies become dry, is only fit for floating nets. — Some confusion seems to have 
taken place in the Hortus Malabaricus concerning this plant, the drawing (Part 
IV. tab. 18.) seems to have been taken from the Eschynomene Indica of Will- 
denow ; while the description, page 31, seems to refer to this plant, which is the 
ASschynornene diffusa of Willdenow.” 
How Mr. Reeves or the Society of Arts make out that this is a recent discovery 
of theirs, I am not aware — but if they had taken the trouble to turn over the “ Let- 
tres edifiantesT of the Catholic Missionaries, (of whom, and by name, you might 
lave said a little more by the way than you have, in your notice No. 3, considering 
liow much we are indebted to them,) or looked into the Abb6 Grosier’s excellent 
abridgment of the memoirs of the Missionaries, they would have found that the 
rench at least were jwell informed on the nature of the substance long ago. — 
losiei, vol. 2, p. 2.37, calls the plant , ton-tsao— but does not appear to have 
been informed of its botanical name. In a subsequent vol. — 5th or 6th, I forget 
which — in his account of the state of the arts, he gives a long description of the 
process of preparing the paper, and of the artificial flowers made therefrom. 
Should the Chinese not be the same species, nothing could be more easily manag- 
ed than its introduction through the Secretary of the Horticultural Committee, A<m- 
cultural and Horticultural Society, who would of course send for the seeds of 'the 
plant, if the subject was brought to bis notice ; and they, or the dried plant, should 
be sent tor at any rate, as it would settle the subject at once, by comparing it with 
our Sola. — I am, Sir, your’s obediently, 3 j. 
. 3 .— Introduction of Gas Light into Egypt. 
f i ie viceroy of Egypt is about to make an arrangement with an English Company 
r lg i mg airo an d Alexandria with gas. He has already made an experiment 
effect' produced 1 ^ ^ **** Cal^0, ^ Said t0 ^ been h ‘ ghly deli S hted witli the 
n 4 - — New Esculent Vegetable. 
Mr. Houlton has obtained the silver Ceres medal from the Society for the en- 
couragement of Arts, for introducing a new esculent vegetable, which he calls pa- 
ace. It is the root of the Stachys palustri of Linnaeus, the Ronax coloni of the older 
botanists; in English, Marcli-all-heal. 
th l bero ° ts are s * x * ncbes * n length, in flavour very similar to asparagus ; 
ml Jntl 6 ' C1 J tender, having no hard fibres, and require boiling but from ten to fifteen 
minutes to fit them for the table. 
In seasons of scarcity, they been been used to make bread of, after being dried, 
and ground into flour.-f Gill’s Tech. R C p. Trans. Soc. Arts.) 
Method of Effacing in Lithography . 
nn of 6 obscn ’e a method has been discovered of effacing any part of a designdrawn 
thp .°“ e * so . tlmt erasures or corrections may be made without any fear of spoiling 
nhv PT essl0n * -* ins a PP ears to have been hitherto a desideratum in Lithogra- 
m-itpriai -? piocess eoasrsts in applying an alkali to dissolve the fatty and viscous 
mateuals, by means of which the ink attaches itself to the stone. Another method 
