549 



England before the commencement of the rainy season. He was therefore 

 unable to accompany me very frequently. Lieut. Colonel Eyre makes 

 almost daily excursions. He possesses, besides a considerable herba- 

 rium, a beautiful set of coloured drawings of Hong-Kong plants, chiefly 

 executed by himself." We may state that both these gentlemen have 

 now been in England for some months, and are, we are told, about to 

 give the public the benefit of their labours. 



There seems to have been a movement in favour of a botanic gar- 

 den, for, " in the evening of the 2ud of December," continues the wri- 

 ter, " 1 attended a meeting of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, when the Secretary read a paper by Dr. H. F. Hance, advo- 

 cating the establishment of a botanical garden. It appears to be the 

 general wish that such an institution should effect a twofold object — 

 be useful to science, and serve as a public promenade. Yet such 

 is the peculiarity of the ground and climate that great difficulty will 

 be experienced in choosing an appropriate place. If a situation un- 

 protected from the wind is selected, a single typhoon may destroy 

 within a few hours the most valuable collection : and a sheltered po- 

 sition adapted for a botanical garden is hardly to be found in the vici- 

 nity of the town. Little hope remains, therefore, of seeing both objects 

 accomplished, but, as has been observed, the advancement of science 

 should be the primary, and promenading the secondary, aim of the 

 institution." 



in Canton M. Seemann was struck with the Chinese practice of 

 medicine. " The people of Canton," he says, " seem to attach great 

 value to the virtues of plants. In the principal streets are stalls where 

 medicinal herbs, roots, barks, and other vegetable substances are 

 sold. At one of these places I counted more than fifty different 

 drugs. There is generally, especially if a cure is performed, a man 

 puffing up and extolling the extraordinary properties of iiis wares, in 

 doing which he indulges now and then in a piece of witticism, which 

 occasions his gaping audience great merriment. I have never regret- 

 ted so much being ignorant of the vernacular tongue as here, for 

 whatever may be the quackery connected with the Chinese practice 

 of medicine, a great deal, no doubt, is sound science, dearly purchased 

 by experience. In this respect we have yet much to learn from 

 them. The great work of Li-shi-chin, called the ' Pun-tsau-kang- 

 muh,' or Materia Medica, is a valuable compilation, of which Euro- 

 peans know but little, and which has never been translated into any 

 language. It consists of no less than forty closely-printed octavo 

 volumes, and contains several hundred figures of minerals, plants, and 



