216 MR. FORTUNE'S VISIT TO CHINA, 



on the hills, where it climbs in hedges and on trees, and allows 

 its flowering branches to hang in graceful festoons by the sides of 

 the narrow roads which lead across the mountains. The Ficus 

 nitida, so common around all the temples and houses in the south, 

 is here unknown, and many of those beautiful flowering genera 

 which, as I before remarked, are only found on the top of the 

 mountains in Hong Kong, here have chosen less exalted situations ; 

 I allude more particularly to the Azaleas which abound on the 

 hill-sides of this island. Most persons have seen and admired 

 the Azaleas which are yearly brought to the Chiswick fetes, 

 and which, as individual specimens, surpass, in most instances, 

 those which grow and bloom on their native hills ; but few can 

 form any idea of the gorgeous and striking beauty of these 

 Azalea clad mountains, where on every side, as far as our vision 

 extends, the eye rests on masses of flowers of dazzling bright- 

 ness and surpassing beauty. Nor is it Azaleas alone which 

 meet the eye and claim our attention : clematises, wild-roses, 

 honeysuckles, the Glycine sinensis, noticed above, and a 

 hundred other things, mingle their flowers with them, and make 

 us confess that, after all, China is indeed the " central flowery 

 land." There are several species of Myrtaceous and other 

 Ericaceous plants, which are also common on the hills, but no 

 species of heath has been ever found ; and I believe the genus 

 does not exist in this part of China. 



The tallow-tree {Stillingia sehiferd) is abundant in the valleys 

 of Chusan, and large quantities of tallow and oil are yearly 

 extracted from its seeds. The Laurus camphora, or camphor- 

 tree, is also common, and attains a very large size, but, so far as 

 I know, no camphor is extracted or exported from the island. 

 TJiea viridis — the green-tree slirub — is cultivated in some parts 

 rather extensively ; but if we except a small quantity of tea 

 which is annually sent over to Ningpo and the adjoining towns 

 on the mainland, the whole of the produce is used by the natives 

 themselves. Every small farmer and cottager has a few plants 

 on his own premises, which he rears with considerable care, but 

 seems to have no wish to enter on its cultivation on a larger 

 scale for exportation. Indeed it is questionable if it would pay, 

 as the soil is scarcely rich enough ; and although the shrub 

 grows pretty .well, it is far from being so luxuriant as it is in the 

 larger tea-districts of the mainland, which I afterwards visited. 



The forests of different varieties of Bamboo are very striking, 

 and give a kind of tropical character to the scenery of this part 

 of the country. I do not know anything more beautiful than 

 the yellow Bamboo, with its clean straight stems and graceful 

 tops and branches waving in the breeze ; it always reminded me 

 of our young larch forests in England. The Pinus sinensis 



