the stalk, where the leaf or stem shoots out from the stock of the 
Fern, and only a small quantity is found on each plant, amount¬ 
ing to about two or three ounces. It takes about four years 
for the plant to reproduce this amount. 
“ Owing to the large quantities that have been collected of 
late years, the article is becoming scarce in the Hilo district, 
though in the Hamakua and Puna districts large quantities still 
remain. But as it is further for the natives to go to obtain it, 
and as more expense and fatigue is encountered, the cost is gra¬ 
dually advancing, and the probability is that it will continue to 
advance each year to the extent of a cent per pound. The 
number of persons engaged in gathering Pulu varies : including 
men, women, and children, probably from two to three thousand 
are now dependent on it for a livelihood, receiving generally 
from five to six cents per pound on delivery. The labour of 
gathering the material is very tedious and slow. When picked 
it is wet, and has to be laid out to dry on rocks and on mats. 
In favourable weather it will dry in a day or two, but gene¬ 
rally in the Pulu region wet and rainy days prevail, so that fre¬ 
quently the natives do not get their Pulu dry after several weeks, 
often taking it to market in too wet a state. The dealers have 
constantly to contend with the inclination of the natives to sell 
wet Pulu , as it makes considerable difference in the weight when 
dry. The facilities for drying, packing, and shipping, are im¬ 
proving every year, and the article now shipped is generally dry 
and in good order, closely packed in wool bales. The trade is 
reduced to a system, and though there is no probability of any 
great increase, it will doubtless continue a staple export.” 
Again, we are informed by the same writer, Mr. Cooke, that a si¬ 
milar fibrous substance has been recently noticed by Dr. de Yry 
(now on a government scientific mission to the Dutch East Indian 
possessions, in company with Dr. de Vriese), and the information 
communicated to Daniel Hanbury, Esq., with some account of 
the medicinal properties, real or imaginary (probably styptic). 
There are two kinds; one, Penawar Jambie , derived from the 
rhizomes of Cibotium glaucescens of Kunze and of Hook. Sp. 
Eil. v. 1. p. 83, supposed to be the Polypodium Barometz of 
Loureiro’s Flora Cochinchinensis, and consequently the famous 
Frutex Tartareus, Agnus Scythicics, or Tartarian Lamb* of the 
* This condition of the root-stock of some Tern long engaged the attention 
of early writers on the marvellous, and many strange figures were published of 
it; but Dr. Breyne, of Dantzig, in a Latin dissertation given in the ‘ Philo¬ 
sophical Transactions,’ vol. xxxiii., for 1725, declared that the pretended Agnus 
Scythicus was nothing more than the root of a large Fern covered with its 
natural villus or yellow down, and accompanied by some of the stems, etc., in 
order, when placed in an inverted position, the better to represent the appearance 
of the legs and horns of a quadruped. He also adds that the down or villus is 
the “poco semplc,” or golden moss , so much esteemed by the Chinese for the pur- 
