CHINA. 



fold tbeottUr* together like an ontbrella, at the Kiting 

 of the tuc, and gradually open again at hit nuns- These 

 :utances, conjoined with the general opinion among 

 Oriental > the primary clement, 



and (he fii>: medium of c .met, have naturally 



recommended i . . . and beautiful plant 



to their imaginations, M the most expressive ymbol of 

 .flueace. <- variou* kiiul of the Licn- 



^uiihrd chiefly by the colour of the 

 flower, the red and *Uilc, rose-coloured with single and 

 .c flowers, pale red striped with white, and 

 yellow, which is rery rare, ind which is supposed to be 

 the tame a* the oymphza of Europe. It requires no 

 culture, and may be propagated cither by seed, or 

 more speedily by the rout. Though it grows naturally 

 in water, yrt it can endure a considerable degree of 

 drought ; and, though rather fund of h.at, yet produ- 

 cts the largest flowers iu the northern provinces. Its 

 eeds are eaten in China, as filberts are in Europe, and 

 are reckoned moat delicate when green, though more in- 

 digestible in that state. They are preserved also with 

 sugar 10 a randy of ways. The root likewise forms an 

 article of food, sometimes pickled with salt and vinegar, 

 and eaten along with rice j sometimes powdered, and 

 made into soup, with water and milk ; and is said to be 

 extremely wholesome in every mode in which it is pro- 

 pared. Its leaves are employed in wrapping up fish, 

 fruits, salted provisions, &c. ; and, when dry, are some- 

 times mixed with tobacco, to render it softer and milder 

 in smoking. In order to afford an example to the people 

 tn railing so valuable a vegetable, the government has 

 commanded it to be cultivated in all the lakes, marshes, 

 and watte grounds belonging to the state ; and even the 

 ditches, winch surround the emperor's palace, as well as 

 the canals in hit gardens, are planted full of it. It co- 

 ver* entirely those immense sheets of water, which are 

 i the centre of the city of Fckin ; and when its leaves 

 are green, and Bowers in bloom, it forms one of the most 

 beautiful objects in that capital. 



In the gardens, around the cottages of the Chinese, 

 >*4 flower- were observed beautiful asters and balsams, holly hocks, 

 iaf sUrulu. main, amaranthus, and the ncrium oleander, sometimes 

 called the Ceylon rose. Around the lake Sec-hoo, the 

 most prevailing flowers and shrubs, noticed also by Mr 

 Barrow, were the hibiscus, lilac, mulberry, mimosa, rham- 

 nus, sambucus, ro>c, juniper, cotton plant, amaranthus, 

 xerauhium, epidendrum, flos acris, which vegetates with- 

 out earth or water, celesia or cockscomb, jasmine, myr- 

 tle, row sinica, tuberose, China pink, sweet basil, sweet- 

 scented olive, peony of various hues, and a species of 

 magnolia, of which the flowers appear before the leaves. 

 Some of the more remarkable flowering shrubs, peculiar 

 to the country are, the oo-tong-tchu, resembling a syca- 

 more with large leaves, upon a stalk about a foot in 

 length, extremely bushy, and so loaded with flowers as 

 completely to exclude the rays of the sun. The mo-lien, 

 which ha* a few slender branches, covered with red bark, 

 studded with small white spots, with a small number of 

 large broad leaves at the lower extremity ; and which 

 bear* in the month of December large flowers of seven or 

 eight sharp-poiuted petals with long filaments at their ex- 

 tremities, all the leaves dropping off when the flower begins 

 to blow. The la-reoe, resembling the laurel of Europe, 

 aadalto bearing flowers in winter of a yellow colour, and an 

 agreeable smell like that of the rote. The tcha-hoa, re- 

 sembling the Spanish laurel in its wood and foliage, of which 

 the leave* do not drop in winter, and the flowers of which 

 appearing in December, of a fine rose colour, adhere with- 

 -~y pedicle cloK to the branche). The yu-lan, one 



>' 

 Huiory. 



of the most beautiful ornament* of the Chir.rse gardens, 

 which rics to the height of a tree, and when in flower, 

 resembles a cropped walnut bush with its branches stuck 

 full of lilies ; but its flowers, which perfume the air to a 

 great distance, remain only for a few days. The autum- 

 nal hai-tang, originally brought from the rocks on the 

 Chinese coast, celebrated by their poets as the rose or 

 lily by those of Europe, and the fl >wcrs and foliage of 

 which are very generally imitated by tin -ir painters and 

 embroiderers in ornamenting iluir works, has branches of 

 a fine purple hue, covered with prickles of a deep green 

 colour, bears its flowers in clusters at the extremity of its 

 branches, which resemble the blossom of the peach tree. 

 and which shoot out anew, as the old petals drop off. 

 The moo-tan, or peony shrub, called also the king of 

 li UMTS, an object of great attention among the flunst? 

 of China, who vie with each other in producing the finest 

 specimens, and sending the best to the Emperor, is a 

 large shrub like the orange tree, and bears a ehowy 

 -inelling flower, like a rose, of a beautiful gold 

 colour. The pe-ge-hong, or " red of a hundred days," 

 so named from the duration of the flower, the calyx of 

 which is red on the outside, or a pale yellow within, con- 

 taining six crimson coloured petals, each supported by a 

 slender whitish stalk : these flowers, growing in bunches 

 at the extremity of the branches, succeed each other, if 

 properly shaded, for the space of three months. The 

 ye-hiang-hoa, or " flower which smells in the night," 

 has weak slender branches, requiring to be supported by 

 bamboo reeds or hoops, and bears a greenish yellow 

 flower, which emits an exquisite perfume during the 

 night. It is highly valued by the Chinese, who pur- 

 chase the finest plants sometimes at the rate of 30 tacls 

 (about L. 10) ; but it thrives only in the southern pro- 

 vinces, andean be preserved at Pekin only in hot-houses. 

 The kiu-hoa, or parthenium, which tin- Chinese florists 

 have brought to great perfection, both as to beauty and 

 odour, and of which they are said to enumerate more than 

 3OO species, propagating it by seeds, suckers, grafts, or 

 slips, and sometimes producing varieties, by joining to- 

 gether two slips of different colours, tying them closely 

 with pack-thread, after cutting a notch in each nearly 

 to the pith. 



The medicinal plants produced in China are represent- Medicinal 

 ed as extremly numerous and valuable. The most re- 

 markable are rhubarb, the best of which grows in Se- 

 tchuen, and of which those roots which are heaviest and 

 most variegated with veins of different colours, are most 

 preferred. Hiao-tsao-tong-kong, or " herb in summer 

 becoming worm in winter," which is a rare plant, sup- 

 posed to be originally from Thibet, resembling ginseng 

 in its properties as a stomachic and general tonic, ana 

 from its soft substance and yellow colour, remarkably 

 like a caterpillar worm in its appearance San-tsee, that 

 is, " three and seven," so named from having three 

 leave* at the extremity of its middle and highest stem, 

 while there is only one at the end of the other seven 

 stems, and the root of which is accounted a sovereign 

 remedy in the small pox ; and as a species of grey goat is 

 fond of browsing on its leaves, the Chinese physicians 

 have supposed the blood of these animals to possess the 

 same properties as the herb itself. Cassia-tree, which is 

 found chiefly in the western parts of Yunnan, and which 

 bears long pods resembling a hollow pipe divided into 

 several cells, and containing a pulpy substance similar in 

 taste to the cassia used in Europe. Foo.Iin, supposed to 

 be a kind of mushroom, growing always in the vicinity 

 of pines, several feet beneath the surface of the earth, at- 

 tached to their roots like a fungus, and of which an 





