IN SEARCH OF NEW PLANTS. 209 



I could plant the trees, and where they were*to be considered as 

 public property : that is, any one who might apply was to be 

 supplied with grafts at the proper season of the year. By this 

 means the kinds would soon be multiplied and secured in the 

 country until the fruit could be seen and appreciated by the 

 Chinese themselves. Such things are of great value in China, 

 owing to the very bad varieties of both Apples and Pears which 

 the Chinese at present possess. 



The voyage out was too much like others of the same kind to 

 afford much worthy of notice, until we reached the beautiful 

 islands in the Java sea. The vessel anchored abreast of the 

 village of Anger, in Java, for the purpose of procuring a supply 

 of water and other fresh provisions, and during the time required 

 for this purpose I gladly availed myself of the opportunity of 

 going on shore. Here I found the fine new variety of Dendro- 

 bium secundum^ which I afterwards sent home, and which has 

 been given away to several of the Fellows of the Society. 



Having a fair monsoon up the China Sea, we arrived at Ma- 

 cao in a fortnight after leaving Java. The first view we had of 

 the shores of this celebrated country was far from promising. 

 The islands which lie scattered over this part of the sea, as well 

 as the shores of the main land, have a most bleak and barren 

 appearance. Granite rocks are seen everywhere protruding 

 through the soil, and rearing their heads above the scanty vege- 

 tation. The soil of the hills is a reddish clay, containing very 

 little vegetable matter, and is mixed with portions of the granite 

 in a decaying state, and generally has a cracked and burnt ap- 

 pearance. It is of course a little richer in the ravines and 

 valleys, where the best portions are annually washed down by 

 the rains ; but even liere it is far from being good soil, at least 

 what would be considered as such in England. 



When I landed at Hong Kong, my letters of introduction, 

 both from the Government and from private individuals, pro- 

 cured me many friends, who were most anxious to forward the 

 views of the Society. Messrs. Dent and Co. in particular not 

 only gave me a room in their house, but placed their gardens at 

 Macao and Hong Kong entirely at my service, giving me leave 

 to take from them any plant I might wish to send to England, 

 and to use them for depositing any of my collections in, until an 

 opportunity occurred of sending them home. 



As soon as I was fairly clear of the ship I began my re- 

 searches upon our island of Hong Kong, then in its infancy as a 

 British settlement. This island is a chain of mountains, 1800 

 or 2000 feet high, sloping in a rugged and unequal manner on 

 each side, down to the sea. It is about ten miles in length from 

 east to west ; in some places three, in pthers five in breadth, and 



VOL. I. p 



