I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



567 



From the American Ruralist. 



A Chinese Gentleman's House. 



The commercial connection between Chi- 

 na and Japan and this country, which must 

 become stronger and more widely extended 

 in future years, is awakening a peculiar in- 

 terest in the manners and habits of those 

 secluded people. Our readers will be pleas- 

 ed with an introduction to the house of a 

 Chinese gentleman : 



" He first took us to his country-house, 

 now uninhabited. It was the perfect resi- 

 dence of a Chinese gentleman. There was a 

 very large garden, with bamboo hedges, and 

 large fish tanks, edged with walls of blue 

 bricks and perforated tiles. His pigs were 

 in admirable condition, and as beautifully 

 kept as the Prince Consort's at Windsor. 

 About the grounds were nutmegs, mangos- 

 teens, plaintains, cocoa-nuts, dariens, and 

 small creepers trained into baskets and pa- 

 godas. Inside the house, the drawing-rooms 

 and doors sliding across circular openings. 

 We then went on to this good gentleman's 

 private residence, entering by a Chinese tri 

 umphal-gate. He tells me he has ten miles 

 of carriage road round his estate. It is on 

 a fine, undulating tract of land, reclaimed 

 from the jungle, and laid out with rare taste. 

 In the outskirts a tiger killed a man the 

 other day. In his garden I found Jacko, 

 living in a cane cage, next door to a porcu- 

 pine ; there were also some rare birds. 

 Further on were some very small Brahmin 

 bulls, a Cashmere goat, and a family of young 

 kangaroos. There were all sorts of unknown 

 beautiful flowers placed about in enormous 

 China vases. 



Here I first saw the tea-plant growing. 

 It is of the camelia tribe, three or four feet 

 high, and bears a small white flower, like 

 the opening dog-rose ; also, I was shown the 

 " moon flower," a kind of rounded convol- 

 volus, that only opens at night. There was 

 a bower of " monkey-cups," the pitcher- 

 flower, which collects water, and from which 

 Jacko refreshes himself in the jungles. The 

 fan palm, a beautiful tree, on the lawn, pro- 

 duced water of a clear, cold quality by being 

 pierced with a pen-knife. Several minute 

 creepers were trained oveK wire forms to imi- 

 tate dragons, with egg shells for their eyes ; 

 and there were many of the celebrated 



little oaks 

 inches high, like 

 The house here 



was superbly furnished in the ^English style? 

 but with lanterns all about it. At six o'clock 

 the guests arrived — mostly English, all 

 dressed in short white jackets and trousers. 

 The dinner was admirably served in good 

 London style, and all the appointments, as 

 regarded plate, glass, wines, and dishes, t per- 

 fect. The quiet, attentive waiting of the 

 Chinese boys deserved all praise. After 

 dinner we lounged through the rooms, which 

 were decorated with English prints of the 

 royal family, statuettes, " curios " from eve- 

 ry part of the world, rare objects in j ode- 

 stone and crackle-china ; also a portrait of 

 our host's son, who is being educated in 

 Edinburgh. He was in English dress. 

 Albert Smith's " To China and Back." 



dwarf trees, the first I had seen^ 



and elms about 

 small, withered old men. 



eighteen 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



Office of the Va. State Agricultural Society. ") 

 Richmond, August, 1860. j 



Dear Sir : — The attendance of a full delega- 

 tion at the next annual meeting of the Farmers 

 Assembly is felt by the Executive Committee to 

 be of vital importance to the welfare of the Vir- 

 ginia State Agricultural Society. They would 

 therefore, earnestly invoke your active' co-opera- 

 tion in promoting, by all suitable means, the at- 

 tainment of so desirable an object. 



The existing constitution has signally failed 

 in its practical operation. Important and radi- 

 cal changes, suggested by the experience of the 

 last five years, are manifestly necessary to adapt 

 it to a more efficient subservience to the pur- 

 poses, and objects for which the Society was ori- 

 ginally founded, and so munificently endowed. 

 Notice was givea at the last Assembly of some 

 of the most important of the proposed changes, 

 to bring them within the scope of the constitu- 

 tional provision, requiring a vote of two-thirds 

 of the members in attendance to pass an amend- 

 ment thus notified in advance. All other chan- 

 ges which may be proposed, will lie under the 



