THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 129 



can be filled with water. In the south of 

 China, these rice grounds occupy the whole of 

 the level ground, and much of the sides of the 

 mountains. In the latter case, they are either 

 supplied with water by the streams which 

 descend the mountain sides, or water is pumped 

 from a field to the one lying above it, and 

 in this way the water is often carried one 

 thousand feet high. When the young plants 

 are two or three inches high the tops are 

 broken off, that each plant may form several 

 shoots. In some parts of China, each plant is 

 transplanted two or three times, in order to 

 obtain a more abundant crop. The harvest 

 commences three or four months after the 

 transplanting ; the ears are either cut closely 

 off, and the stalks left to decay, or they are cut 

 with the stalk, and bound into small sheaves. 

 The average produce of marsh rice is from one 

 hundred to one hundred and twenty fold. 



A great variety of plants, of very peculiar 

 character, and strikingly different from any 

 which we are accustomed to see, distinguish 

 this zone in South Australia. We wilfiiptice 

 just a few ; to do more would occupy too much 

 space, while a mere enumeration of the scien- 

 tific names w r ould convey no information. So 

 strange is the character of the vegetation of this 

 country, that at first it would seem as if it 

 belonged to a different world. Evergreens, of 

 a dark melancholy hue, prevail ; and there are 

 whole shadowless forests of trees, with leaf 

 stalks, but no leaves. The leaf stalks, dilated 



