Thea. | THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 119 
obtained ; and sugar, rice, and cotton, cultivated, as well as an inferior kind of tea. 
The fruits consist of oranges and shaddocks, bananas, pine-apples, and jack-fruit ; with 
those which are peculiar to China, as the lee-chee, longan, wampee, &c.: grapes, pears, 
prunes, chestnuts, and peaches, are also found, but do not ripen well. In a garden 
near Canton, Dr. Abel found the J/outan Paeony, Camellias, Azaleas, and roses, with 
the black and green-tea plants, which he also saw in a plantation at Macao; as well as 
Vaccinium formosum, the tree like Lycopodium, and the dwarf elm. The province of 
Fokien, which is celebrated for the production of the best black tea, lies to the north- 
ward of the province of Canton, between the tropic of Cancer and 28° of north latitude. 
It is mountainous, but warm and healthy. The mountains are terraced, and covered 
with firs: the cultivation consists of rice and sugar, and in the cold season of wheat ; 
oranges, lee-chees and longans are abundant. 
From the above few notices of the temperature and vegetation, though during only 
a portion of the year, in some of the provinces of China, we may perceive a considerable 
resemblance to what we have seen to be the characteristics of the Flora of India and 
its mountains: that is, considerable uniformity in these respects over an immense extent 
of plain country, and a rapid change from a tropical to a European vegetation, whenever 
we begin to ascend the mountains. But this is a more remarkable occurrence in China 
than in India, as its plains stretch into more northern latitudes, and the extremes of 
temperature between winter and summer, as well as the differences in this respect 
between the northern and southern provinces, is much greater than in India. But if we 
enter more particularly into details, we shall find that this resemblance in the vegetation 
and cultivation of different provinces with one another, and of all with India, is almost 
entirely confined to annuals. Such plants, cultivated in summer, are subjected 
~ every where to nearly similar degrees of heat; while those which constitute the winter 
crops, meet only with congenial cold. But the perennials of mountainous situations, as 
well as those of the northern provinces, being exposed alike to the severity of a Chinese 
winter and the heats of summer, which, though great, are excessive only for a short 
time, resemble the plants of northern latitudes, and such as are found on the slope of 
the Himalaya: belonging to such genera as Pinus, Taxus, Juniperus, Cupressus, 
Quercus, Betula, Populus, Salix, Celtis, Ulnus, sculus, Castanea, Morus, Frazinus, 
Syringa, Tilia, Acer, Rhododendron, Andromeda, Azalea, Rhus, Juglans, Pyrus, Prunus, 
Crategus, Cydonia ; together with Berberis, Sambucus, Viburnum, Lonicera, Evonymus, 
Rhamnus, Ilex, and Staphylea; and among herbaceous plants, many Ranunculacee, 
Fumariacee, Crucifere, Caryophyllee, Rosacee, Sempervive, Umbellifere, and Primu- 
lacee; as well as species belonging to the genera Viola, Erodium, Geranium, Hypericum, 
Ruta, Lythrum, Savifraga, Chrysosplenium, Rubia, Galium, Linaria, Hyoscyamus, Statice, 
Plantago, Iris, Lilium, Allium, Convallaria, and Paris. With these genera are asso- 
ciated others, of which the species are most prevalent about the centre of the temperate 
zone, and to which great extremes of temperature may be supposed to be obnoxious, as 
Pistacia, Olea, Punica, Cercis, Nerium Oleander, Papaver Somniferum and Rhoeas ; 
and 
