No. 14<).] 263 



the vallies of Fo-Kien freezes every year. We met on the roads 

 gangs of vagabonds who demanded alms of us and they tried to 

 excite our charity by scattering straw and other like material 

 orer the icy surface of the road to prevent our pedestrians and 

 our beasts of burthen from slipping. 



Father Carpiua, who resided a long time in the eastern part 

 of Fo-Kien, assured Mr. Ball that the teas had never been dam- 

 aged nor the crops retarded by winters as severe even as that of 

 1815, when snow fell to the depth of nearly Mree /ee^ in the 

 canton of Fo-Gan, in latitude 27° and to the depth of over four 

 feet in that of Ning-ti. In that year and in 1816, the river Mo- 

 Yang was frozen so that boatmen had to break the ice in order 

 to get their boats along. This river is about the size of the 

 Guadalquiver at Cordova. 



The Camellia, which is a congener of tea, grows in all parts 

 of China yet visited by our travellers. At Shanghai in latitude 

 31° 24' the climate may be considered as analogous to that of 

 Japan, which is the native land of Camellia — and Thunberg as- 

 sures us that the cold is intense there, the thermometer indicat ■ 

 ing many degre?s below the freezing point (the French writers 

 zero) even in the warmest provinces. In the winter of 1845- 

 1846 the river Woosang (in Shanghai) was frozen so hard that 

 the Englishmen skated upon it. The Camellia in open air near 

 London was not injured by the cold winter of 1837-1838, aitho' 

 the cold was at times below the zero of Fahrenheit. In that 

 winter some Camellias in the garden of the London Horticultu- 

 ral Society, in open air near brick walls, which gave some 

 lateral protection, were not in the least injured by a cold of 4^ 

 degrees below Fahrenheit's zero. Those plants exhibited after 

 this weather, the most brilliant health and flowered most abun- 

 dantly. 



White Transparent Carrot. — From Mulhause — Smaller than 

 other carrots, but very white and transparent. 



White Flat Beet from Vienna. — This is much like the flat turnip. 



Yellow Globe Beet. — Grows almost out of the earth — flesh very 

 white, compact, and probably more nutritious than the scarcity 

 beet. The red globe beet is inferior to it in all respects. 



