CHI N A. 1751-. 389 



might arife from the water coming down the 

 hi! Is. The inhabitants, who were here in their 

 plantations, had purpofely ftirred the water 

 to make it muddy, that we might not go high- 

 er up ; for mifchievous people fometimes do 

 them a good deal of mifchief by pulling up their 

 potatoes, fugar-canes, &c. As I went on be- 

 tween their uninclofed fields, I was afked by 

 them, what countrymen we were ? and upon 

 ray anfwering, we are all of us Soy amen (for 

 fo they call the Swedes), I met with no further 

 oppofition ; but a Chinefs told me, that fome 

 Englijhmen had pulled up feveral roots in his 

 garden the day before : he then accompanied 

 me, and offered me fome potatoes ; but I was 

 more thirfty than hungry, and the v/ater was fo 

 wretched, though it was become clear, that 

 when it was ufed for tea, it flained cotton with 

 blue fpots. From this we concluded it was a 

 mineral water ; but we wanted the neceffary 

 materials to try it. It became milky with fugar 

 of lead. 



Oxalis corniculata, by the Chinefc called 

 Syji-mee, grew near the fpring, and in other 

 low and ihady places. The corolla is as long 

 again as the calyx : the capfule is pentagonal, 

 oblong, with a point, and the whole plant is 

 jbiirj. 



PvU ELL I A 



