76 FLORA mSTORlCA. 



Jations as '• travellers' stones," and believing only 

 •what one's own eyes had seen : otherwise, how are 

 we to account for the lons^ ne^Tjlect in obtainlno^ this 

 and many other rare plants, which were made known 

 and fully described to us as long back as the year 

 1656, when the first embassy which the Dutch 

 East India Company made to China returned to 

 Eui'ope ? The attendants of this embassy appear 

 to have had freer access to that country than has 

 been granted to any subsequent embassies that have 

 been sent out ; for we find they not only passed 

 from Canton to Pekin, but visited and faithfully 

 described every thing worthy of notice, and were 

 jeven allowed to visit the gardens of the Emperor of 

 China : yet this excellent work, which first made 

 "known that delightful fruit the Ananas, or Pine- 

 Apple, the refreshing leaf of the Tea, and the mag- 

 nificent flower of the Moutan, or Tree Peony, was 

 so much neglected as a volume of *' travellers' 

 stories," that little account appears to have been 

 made of its description of the vegetable kingdom, 

 although it was translated into English, and pub- 

 lished in London as long back as 1669 ; and from 

 which we shall extract Nievhoff 's account of the 

 Tree Peony, to show not only how faithfully it is 

 described, but that inquiry must have been made 

 as to what part of China it was indigenous. 



This author says, under the head of flowers, 



