NATURAL HIsrOUY CALENDAR AT FOO-CIIOW-FOO. 121 



square tub, dried, and dressed in a machine like our own. — The ground, 

 after being turned up with a plough or with a hoe, is broken by a three- 

 pronged fork. A harrow has not yet crossed my eye. — 15. Setting garlick, 

 stacking straw, watering mustard-seedlings. Chah-tsae fit for the table. — 

 17. Wheat springing up 4 inches long; ploughing and breaking the clods 

 still continue. — 18. Tobacco springing up. — 19. The husbandman complains 

 of drought. In dry weather wheat is steeped in water to promote germina- 

 tion, but neither in urine, lye, nor any drugged preparation. — 23. Setting 

 out of " Cheng-tsae," one of the cabbage family. — 24. Saw a man weeding 

 out the barley from the wheat, that the worse might not obstruct the growth 

 of the better. — 2.5. Barley is sown in the same way as wheat. The former 

 is called " toy muk " or great wheat, the latter " chew muk," or little wheat. 

 Both are much used here in the making of different sorts of -vermicelli. 



Fruits and Floivers in Season. — 1-13. Sweet-potatoes (Fang-sew) are now 

 in great abundance, and are sold for 4 cash per catty, /. e. less than a farthing 

 per lb. They are dressed by steam in a sort of sieve set over a pot of boil- 

 ing water for that purpose. They are mucli relished by the common people, 

 who find them ready cooked as they pass along the stret^t, and thus oljtain a 

 "bait" or " teen-sing" at an easy purchase. — Oranges of the loose and close 

 peeled kinds begin to make their appearance, but not in any plenty. — The 

 Diospyros Kaki is called " tey " here, the ^^ " che " of the northern 

 dialect ; it being customary in this to exchange ch for t. This most whole- 

 some fruit is now in season : here it is of a middling size and of a sightly 

 aspect. — Garlick plenteous ; the accompaniment of pork and fish. — 14. Bam- 

 boo shoots, or "suing," in season. — 15. Cabbage from Shan-tung dear: a 

 kind resembling it cultivated here cheap. — IG. Lettuce in leaf not earthed up : 

 eaten by lactescent women to promote the secretion of milk. — 19. The leaves 

 of the Stillingia sebifera, or Tallow-tree (" Woo-keung " of the natives), turn 

 red about this time, and then the tree exceeds in beauty both the Chinese 

 Plane-tree and the Chinese Maple, which in Autumn are tinted with car- 

 mine, and which are much talked of by poets under the common name of 

 " Fung Shoo." — 28-30. Plants in flower : Golden Kod, berried Polygonum, 

 purple Sow-thistle, Parsley, Michaelmas Daisy, Chaste tree. Dwarf-rose here 

 and there. Dwarf-thistle or " keymoo-hwa,' and Pih-tsae, or White cabbage. 

 Lycium barbarum in fruit and flower. — Canarium in season, much relished. 

 — San-cha, a kind of Sorbus from Shan-tung dipped in syrup and stuck on a 

 rocket of straw. — Sent specimens of this from Ningpo to the Horticultural 

 Society. [It is growing in the Garden.] Two are sold for 3 cash. 



Animal Kingdom. — 1-10. The most common species of Sesia, or glass- 

 winged moth, still seen in pairs on plants and low shi'ubs. — The silky Ant is 

 not less on the alert, running over the branches of the Guava-tree and the 

 stems of the Sugar-cane in quest of any sweet or gummy juice that may ooze 

 from the bark. — The note of the Blackbird, '• Oshe-put " of Canton, and the 

 " Woo-hik" of this place, is no longer heard at peep of day. — The voice of 

 the lied-winged pie still awakes the silence of the grove. — A fly that moves 

 its wings alternately in slow and laborious action is seen on ihe leaves of the 

 Canarium. — 15. Cockroach of a small size and spotted with ash and brown, 

 common in the nests of the Clubiona. — 18. Saw a pair of herons with a 

 brown body and white wings ; when disturbed they utter a croak. Phea- 

 sants brouglit to market. — 20. The white herons disappear at times and 

 then return again, but not in great numbers ; they are jierhaps guided by the 

 state of the weather. — 23. Pair of Woodpeckers seen on a tree, small, brown 

 colour. — 24-30. A. Dragon-fly struggling on the ground : a Diadem-spider 

 had stole on it while asleep and gummed two wings to each other, and to its 



