376 Voyage of the Novara. 



civilization, perform such feats as to fill even the nations of 

 the old world with wonder and amazement. 



Another communication, made during the same meeting of 

 this meritorious branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong- 

 kong, related to that singular plant, which has within the 

 last few years excited so much attention in industrial circles 

 throughout Europe under the name of '' Green dye," or 

 '' Vert Chinois." Notwithstanding the experiments hitherto 

 made with this valuable dye, and the excellent use which has 

 been made of it, more especially by the Chamber of Commerce 

 at Lyons, the first in Europe to make application of the new 

 colour, there was yet much to be learned respecting the mode 

 of raising and manufacturing it, in order to render its em- 

 ployment entirely practicable. The elegant pamphlet of the 

 Lyons Chamber of Commerce * had just arrived from Europe, 

 and led to a variety of interesting investigations. Nothing 

 was known in Hong-kong respecting the plant beyond what 

 was already contained in Robert Fortune's excellent work 

 and Rondot's treatise. Somewhat later, we were furnished 

 with more accurate and circumstantial information respecting 

 the Lu-Kao, the well-known '' Green dye " of the English (a 

 species of Rhamnus or buckthorn), which we shall here tran- 

 scribe pretty fully. f 



* The title of this work is : — " Notices sur le vert de Chine et de la teinfure en vert 

 chez les Chinois, par Nalulis Rondot, imprime aux frais de la Chamhre de Commerce de 

 Lyon, a Paris, 1858." 



t The Chinese of Shanghai called the plant Li-lu-schu, and the substance obtained 

 from it Gah-schik. 



