122 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



skin ; the people of Sumatra consider it dan- 

 gerous to sit or sleep beneath the shade of the 

 tree. According to Thunberg, it is also ob- 

 tained from Rims vernicifera, -which yields a 

 very beautiful varnish, which will when dry 

 bear the heat of boiling water without injury, 

 but cracks and flies like glass if struck. 

 The beautiful Glycine sinensis, with its myriad 

 bunches of lovely blossoms, resembling labur- 

 nums, except in their rich lilac colour the 

 Oka fragrans, the sweet-scented blossoms of 

 which are mixed with the finer teas to give 

 them flavour the Thuja orientalis, (commonly 

 called lignum vitce,) the Chinese chrysan- 

 themum, which produces its richly beautiful 

 blossoms of every shade of red, yellow, and 

 white, after almost all our other flowers are 

 past and the China, or Banksian roses, which 

 are so highly valued among florists, and the 

 lovers of the garden are all abundant in the 

 Chinese provinces. 



Here, also, are the camphor laurel, the 

 aucuba, so frequent and beautiful an ornament 

 of our gardens, the magnificent camellia, and 

 the tea tree. The hydrangeas, so well known 

 as garden flowers in England, inhabit marshes 

 in China, and wheK cultivated here require 

 large quantities of water. A full- sized one 

 requires as much as ten or twelve gallons a day 

 in warm weather. But the tea shrub is pre- 

 eminently the plant of China. The plant from 

 which the tea of commerce is obtained, is Thea 

 Chinensis, a plant allied to the lovely camellia. 



