252 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
filled with the seed ; and he is engaged in separating the good from the 
bad by hand. 
No. 2 represents a well and a bucket, and utensils for washing the 
seed, and thus making a more perfect selection for sowing. A man 
is pouring the washed seed into a basket. 
No. 3 shows a man, with the basket of seed, in a field prepared 
with holes, into which he drops the seeds, three at a time. 
No. 3. (See Tab. VIII.) Here we have a cluster of the plant 
itself, rising above the roof of a small shed or summer-house. A 
figure is seen by the side of them, who evidently appears interested 
about them: or he may be placed there to enable one the better to 
judge of the size of the plant, by a comparison with the human 
figure. The lower part of the plants is concealed by the roof of the 
building ; but enough is seen to show that they are something quite new 
to us ;—though more, perhaps, like gigantic “heads” of Asparagus 
than anything else to which we can compare them, but too much split 
at the top into branches ? or leaves ? 
_No. 4. In this a man seems to be in the act of pulling entire plants, 
which, though gathered and lying on the ground, exhibit no appearance 
of roots; but a conical even base, as if cut off conically above 
the root. 
No. 5. Here the three plants selected, as just mentioned, are tied in a 
bundle, slung upon a bamboo pole, and carried on the shoulders of two 
. men to a pond of water, into which they are evidently to be plunged, 
. as it would appear for the purpose of separating the external coat or 
= bark. The same general form here prevails as in the two preceding 
figures: but one of the stems has a few fibres on the conical base, like 
. those of some Palm or other monocotyledonous plant. The fact of two 
men being required to carry three stems would imply their bulkiness. 
No. 6. Whether or not the present figure is out of place we cannot 
say: but it represents a Chinaman sitting on the ground, and with five 
. stems (the heads and feet, or tops and bottoms, having been removed), 
_ which are whiter and smaller than those of previous figures, as if 
peeled; and the man is engaged in shaving still more from the out- 
. side of one with a cutting instrument, and the chips strew the ground. 
No. 7. It would appear that this drawing should immediately follow 
^ No. 5, for it exhibits a man seated on a stool and peeling the outer 
coat or rind (the crown being cut off), mueh in the same way as a 
Banana is peeled by beginning at one end and stripping off the green 
