RICE PAPER PLANT.
Aralia papyrifera, Hk. I Fatsia papyrifera, Dene.
This plant, the Tung-to-mu of the Chinese, grows at Yoksun, in Sikkim, also in Formosa and Japan. It is largely consumed in the provinces of Canton and Foh - kien, and it is estimated that 30,000 dollars' worth of it are annually made use of in Fu-chu-fu alone, where every lady wears artificial flowers made of it. One hundred sheets, each about three inche,s square, can be bought for three halfpence. Rice pith is sometimes inches in diameter, not grown from seed, but from young shoots. When these appear above ground early in spring, and are a few inches high, they are carefully separated from the parent roots, and transplanted into pot,s, in which they remain until about a foot high, when they are removed to land prepared for them. They are said to attain their full growth of 10; or 12 feet at their tenth month. They are cut down,
the twigs and leaves removed, and the stems left to soak for some days in water to loosen the bark and wood, and facilitate the removal of the pith. This last, after being cleared and made into a cylindrical shape, is cut into convenient lengths, and is now ready for the hand of the paper cutter, who, with a sharp, broad-bladed knife, makes a slight longitudinal incision in the cylinder of pith, which is then turned round gently and regularly on the edge of the knife, until the whole available material is planed off in thin even slices. Much care and dexterity are requisite to produce sheets of even thiekness.—Bennett, pp. 299-304 ; Hooker's Jour. p. 359 ; Faulkner ; Fortune's Res. among the Chinese, p. 197 ; Dr. 1 Smith's Mat. illedica of China; Sir John Bowriny in New Garden 11-liseellany, vii.