208 MR. FOETUNE'S VISIT TO CHINA, 



thus made ready, the base of each is to be enveloped in a 

 pellet of prepared grout or mortar about the consistency of 

 leaven. This mortar is to be made from clay and dung, or clay 

 and peat finely and intimately incorporated ; and too nmch stress 

 cannot be laid upon the infinite division and combination of the 

 particles, since they undergo an important change by that pro- 

 cess, and become essentially different in the compound from 

 wliat they were in their simple and separate elements. The 

 scions being thus prepared with balls are to be planted just as 

 if they had roots, in the same way that a dahlia or verbena plant 

 is turned out into the open ground with a ball of earth attaclied. 



XXXII. — Sketch of a Visit to China, in search of New Plants. 

 By Mr. R. Fortune, Superintendent of the Hothouse Depart- 

 ment in the Garden of the Society. 



[It was mentioned in the Report of the Council, p. 167, that 

 Mr. Fortune was expected home in a few days, on his return 

 from his Cliinese mission. He has since arrived, and the fol- 

 lowing is a brief sketch of his Proceedings during his arduous 

 enterprise. His personal narrative, which is Mr. Fortune's own 

 property, will be made public by himself, and the Council have 

 decided that, in consideration of liis zeal and good conduct, they 

 will waive their right to the full details of his observations on 

 Horticulture and Agriculture, in order that they may be incor- 

 porated with his personal narrative.] 



When the news of the peace with China first reached England 

 in the autumn of 1842, the Council of the Horticultural Society 

 of London, believing that an extensive field of Botanical and 

 Horticultural treasures lay unexplored and unknown in the 

 northern parts of that empire, appointed me as their collector. 

 I left England early in the spring of the following year, and ar- 

 rived in China on the 6th of July. Several cases of living 

 plants were sent out under my charge, as well as a large quan- 

 tity of vegetable and flower seeds, the greater part of which 

 arrived in excellent order. The fruit-trees and vegetable seeds 

 were greatly prized by English Residents in the northern parts 

 of the countrj^ where such things succeed much better than they 

 do in the south. Captain Balfour, H. M. Consul at Shanghae, 

 kindly offered me ground in the garden of the Consulate where 



