CHINA. 



Watural are known in Europe, with several others peculiar to it- 

 Hitfory' gelf; but, except the practice of ingrafting, they em- 

 ploy few artificial means for improving the quality of 

 their fruits, and suffer them to grow almost in a wild 

 state. Hence, except the grapes and pomegranates, the 

 fruits of China are very inferior in flavour to those of 

 European growth. Their apples are soft and spongy ; 

 their pears of an immense size, f sometimes excellent, 

 but commonly of a remarkably austere taste ; their cher- 

 ries, universally indifferent ; but their peaches generally 

 good, especially one kind of a flat shape. They have 

 various kinds of apricots, which are in general detesta- 

 ble ; but one kind, which grows wild on the waste soils 

 and most unfavourable situations, yields, from its ker- 

 nels, an excellent oil for lamps, while the stones are em- 

 ployed as fuel in the small stoves. Apricots are fre- 

 quently preserved both in a dry and liquid state, and 

 tometimes the juice only is pressed out, boiled into a 

 pretty thick consistency, and formed into a kind of lo- 

 tenges, which may be kept for any length of time, and 

 which, when dissolved in water, make a very cooling 

 nd refreshing beverage. Grapes are very abundant, 

 but it is said that the government prohibits the making 

 of wine; but the fact is, that the Chinese grape is not 

 capable of producing it ; and it was with great diffi- 

 culty, that the missionaries at Pekin succeeded in their 

 experiments for that purpose. The olives are of differ- 

 nt kinds, but none of them seem to be cultivated for the 

 purpose of making oil. It is affirmed, that, before ga- 

 thering the fruit, a hole is bored in the trunk of the tree, 

 filled with salt, and closely covered up, and that, at the 

 end of a few days, after this operation, the olives drop 

 off. Oranges are found in great variety in China, but 

 the most esteemed is of a small size, smooth soft skin, 

 and a reddish yellow colour. Another kind, of a large 

 ize, is of a firmer texture, not easily peeled, nor capable 

 of having the pulp divided into separate parts ; but is 

 of a wholesome quality, and, after being softened at the 

 fire and mixed with sugar, is frequently given to the 

 sick. Lemons and citrons are also common, some of 

 which are large like the shaddock ; and a smaller kind, 

 resembling a walnut, is cultivated with particular atten- 

 tion for culinary uses. There are not wanting mangoes, 

 bananas, pine apples, tamarinds, figs, almonds, and other 

 fruits sufficiently known ; and there are many again pe- 

 culiar to the country, of which the' t mo8t celebrated are, 

 the Lee-tehee, resembling a date, which the Chinese 

 frequently dry in the rind, using it in their tea, to which 

 it communicates a slight acid taste, and which the mis- 

 sionaries have represented as a most delicious fruit, but 

 which is said to have the taste of an insipid onion, and 

 to be of a very heating nature, covering the skin with 

 pustules, when eaten to excess. The Long-yan, or dra- 

 gon's eye, which has atari juicy taste like the last men- 

 tioned, but more agreeable and wholesome, at least to 

 Europeans. The Hoang-pee, which has a sourish taste, 

 like thatof gooseberries, when scarcely ripe. TheTchee- 

 tse, which resembles a fig, about the size of an ordinary 

 apple, and which, when dried and flattened, are called 

 Tehee- ping, arid are then equal to the best figs of Eu- 

 rope. The Lin-kio, a species of water chesnut, of a cool- 

 ing and agreeable taste, sometimes sold like filberts, in a 

 green state, sometimes dried, powdered, and made into 

 oup, and sometimes baked in the oven with sugar and 

 honey. In order to propagate the plant, it is sufficient 

 to throw the seeds, about the end of autumn, into the 



shallowest places of ponds or rivers, in a south exposure. ] 

 The Pee-tsee, another water chesnut, which grows only .^"T^ 

 in the southern provinces, wholesome and cooling, and 

 much used by the sick. Its leaves are long like those of 

 the bulrush, and hollow like the stalk of the onion. Its 

 fruit is found in a capsule formed by the root, in which 

 it is inclosed, like a chesnut within its husk, and from 

 which it may be extracted without injuring the plant. 

 Belvidere, or Chenopodium, found chiefly in a wild state, 

 the leaves of which, resembling those of flax, are eaten 

 as sallad with salt and vinegar, or baked with meat, to 

 which they communicate an agreeable flavour ; its prin- 

 cipal stalk and root are also dried and baked ; sometimes 

 reduced to a kind of flour, which is made into small 

 loaves, and used by the poorer classes in seasons of scar- 

 city. Hemp is often cultivated in the Chinese gardens, 

 not for the purpose of being manufactured into cloth ; 

 but for the sake of its leaves and seeds, which are mixed 

 with tobacco for smoking. 



In their gardens are tobacco, sallads, leeks, onions, garlic, Pot-heris, 

 spinage, carrots, turnips, raddishes,celery, mustard, beans, 

 calavances, pepper, ginger, pumpkins, cucumbers, gourds, 

 musk, and water-melons, and many of the commoji Eu- 

 ropean pot-herbs, of which they procured the seeds from 

 the Portuguese. But their most common pot-herb is t 



the Pe-tsai, or white herb, a kind of brassica or cale, 

 which the Chinese prefer to all other vegetables, and 

 with which large fields are often covered. It grows to 

 the height of two feet ; and a single plant will often 

 weigh from ten to fifteen pounds. It has an insipid 

 taste, not unlike to that of cos-lettuce. It is sometimes 

 half-boiled and dried, or salted in brine, and prepared 

 something in the manner of the sour krout of the Ger- 

 mans. But one of the most abundant, most curious, Li e n-ha 

 and most generally useful of these plants is the Lien hoa O r water 

 or Lien-wha, the water lily of China, formerly known lily, 

 to botanists under the name of Nympha-a Nebitmbo, but 

 now considered as a new genus, and distinguished by the 

 appellation of Nelumbinm. The leaves are round, broad, 

 and large, thick and fibrous, and indented towards the 

 middle ; some of them floating on the surface of the wa- 

 ter, and others rising upon long stems. The root, whick 

 is sometimes 12 or 15 feet in length, and of the thick- 

 ness of a man's arm, of a pale yellow colour internally, 

 but milk white in its external surface, creeps along the 

 bottom of the lakes, attaching itself to the mud or earth, 

 by a multitude of small filaments. The flowers are com- 

 posed of several petals, disposed in such a manner, as to 

 resemble large tulips when half blown ; and from the 

 middle of the flower rises a conical pistil, round and 

 spongy, divided into cells, which are filled with oblong 

 seeds, covered with a husk like the acorn, and compo- 

 sed of two white lobes. It grows spontaneously in al- 

 most every lake and morass, from the middle of Tartaiy 

 in the north, to the province of Canton in the south ; 

 and yet it is with the utmost difficulty, that it can be 

 preserved by artificial means in Europe, in places where 

 the climate is neither so cold nor so warm as many parts 

 of China, where it vegetates naturally and luxuriantly. 

 It is said to form one of the ingredients, which compose 

 their liquor of immortality, and has been celebrated by 



their poeti of every period, as an emblem of creative 

 power. The leaves of the succeeding plant are found 

 involved in the middle of the seed, in a perfect state, and 

 of a beautiful green colour. The large leaves, also, 

 which spread themselves over the surface of the water, 



t One of them, measured bf M. De Cuignw, wa about flre incbe in htight, four in diameter, and thirttet and a half im cfrnij*.. 



