156 NEW YEAR’S DAY. [Cuar.JX 
the poetical name of “ Fa-tee,” or flowery land, 
which the Chinese have given them. 
The garden which formerly belonged to the East 
India Company is still in existence. It is buta 
small plot of ground on the river side, not more 
than sixty paces each way, having broad chunamed 
walks round it, and a clump, with a few trees in the 
middle, and a few more between the walk and the - 
wall all round. Since Mr. Reeves’s time no one 
seems to have paid any attention to the plants here, 
and if there ever were any rare species, they are 
now all lost. A few Palms, Plantains, Magnolia 
grandiflora, Clerodendron fragrans, Justicia Adha- 
toda, Ligustrum, Murraya exotica, the Leechee, and 
two or three other well-known things, are all that it 
contains. In front of the American factory there 
is a very nice public garden, at least six times the 
size of the Company’s, with fine broad walks for 
recreation, and containing numerous shrubs and 
trees indigenous to the country; nothing, it is true, 
of any rarity, but sufficient to make it look extremely 
well. A good garden and promenade are of much 
importance here; for it is likely to be some years 
before foreigners enjoy the same liberty at Canton 
of walking about the country as they do in the 
other parts of China. 
At this period the Chinese were making great 
preparations for the celebration of New Year's Day, 
which then fell on the 18th of February. Flowers 
of all kinds were in great demand amongst the 
inhabitants, who employ them in the decoration of 
