Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/327

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EICE PAPER TREE RICH 311 1852 that its history was made out; in that year Sir William Hooker in the "Journal of Botany" gave an account of the rice paper plant, which he referred to the genus aralia Rice Paper Tree (Fatsia papyrifera). and called A. papyrifera. In a revision of aralia and related plants Decaisne and Plan- chon in 1854, for botanical reasons, separated this from aralia, and made a new genus, Fat- sia ; and though the plant will be found in most current botanical and horticultural works as aralia papyrifera, its proper botanical name is Fateia papyrifera. The tree is a native of Formosa, rarely growing more than 20 ft. high, and branching above ; the young stems, leaves, and inflorescence are covered with a copious down of stellate hairs; the leaves, on long petioles, are often a foot across, round-heart- shaped, and five- to seven-lobed. The flowers are small and greenish, and are produced in pendulous panicles, 1 to 3 ft. long at the end of the branches. The plant has such ample leaves and so stately an aspect that it is a favorite in subtropical planting; a single young and vig- orous specimen as a centre to a bed of low- growing plants produces a fine effect. It must be kept in a greenhouse or dry cellar during winter, though if left out the roots would no doubt prove hardy, as the writer had numer- ous young plants come up in the spring from fragments of the roots left in the soil on ta- king up a large plant the previous autumn. The vigorous stems have a pith which is an inch and a half in diameter and of a snowy white- ness; after the woody exterior is removed, the Chinese cut the pith into sheets, by paring with a sharp knife from the circumference to- ward the centre, unrolling it, as it were, and then flattening it out and pressing it under weights until dry, when it remains as a flat sheet. It is imported in sheets a few inches square, and in dry weather it is exceedingly fragile. It is used solely for fancy ornamental work; some of the pith is exported in the stem for artificial flower makers, who find in its tissue a material which more closely than any other imitates the petals of the most deli- cate flowers. RICH, a N. E. county of Utah, bordering on Idaho and Wyoming, and intersected by Bear river; area, about 850 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,955. The E. part is mountainous. It is gen- erally well timbered, and adapted to the rais- ing of grain, stock, and vegetables. The chief productions in 1870 were 3,782 bushels of wheat, 6,175 of oats, 2,530 of barley, 4,660 of potatoes, and 775 tons of hay. The value of live stock was $26,015. Capital, St. Charles. RICH, Claudius James, an English traveller, born near Dijon, France, March 28, 1787, died in Shiraz, Persia, Oct. 5, 1821. When 15 years old he was familiar with Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and Turkish. In 1803 he be- came a cadet of the East India company, and in 1804 a writer at Bombay. He was appointed secretary to Mr. Lock, consul general to Egypt, and after perfectly acquiring the Turkish and Arabic languages, travelled over a great part of Palestine and Syria as a Mameluke, and finally reached Bassorah, whence he sailed to Bombay. In 1808 he was appointed by the East India company resident at Bagdad, where he remained about six years. In 1811 he vis- ited the site of Babylon, and published a "Me- moir on the Ruins of Babylon." After a sec- ond journey to that place, he published a " Second Memoir on Babylon " (1818). In 1820 he travelled in Kurdistan, going as far east as Sinna. His widow published his "Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistan " (1839). His col- lections are in the British museum. RICH, Edmund, Saint (called by the French Saint Edme), archbishop of Canterbury, born in Abingdon, Berkshire, about 1190, died at Soissy, France, Nov. 16, 1242. He studied at Oxford, graduated in theology at the uni- versity of Paris, and lectured for some time there on Scripture. From 1219 to 1226 he taught philosophy at Oxford, being the first there to expound the logic of Aristotle. He accepted a prebend in the cathedral of Salis- bury, but gave nearly all the revenues to the poor ; and on April 2, 1234, he was consecra- ted archbishop of Canterbury. The king per- mitted him to enforce discipline in spite of the opposition of his clergy, his chapter, and even his own relatives. Pope Gregory IX. sent him a bull empowering him to appoint to all vacant benefices not filled within six months after the decease of the former occupant ; but the king persuaded the pope to revoke the bull, and the pope then appointed Italians to the vacancies. Edmund, deeming this an abuse of the papal power, about 1239 retired to the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in France. On account of enfeebled health he went to Soissy in Cham- pagne, where he died. His remains were taken