428 On the Transportation of Plants from China to 



a properly qualified gardener, and place him under the im- 

 mediate protection of their Select Committee of Super Car- 

 goes ; but that they would also approve of the managing 

 owners, and Captains of their ships, making the necessary 

 arrangements for bringing home the plants which he might 

 be able to collect. 



The gardener should reside at Macao, having a suitable 

 establishment, a house, garden, and native assistants. After 

 defraying all his necessary charges, it might be advisable to 

 make his further emoluments to depend chiefly on the suc- 

 cess of the undertaking, by paying to him a certain handsome 

 sum for every new plant, with which he enriched the horti- 

 cultural or botanical stores of England. 



The arrangements to be made for the transportation of the 

 plants should be liberal, and beneficial to the parties assist- 

 ing in it. The owners should be paid the proper freight for 

 the requisite quantity of water : and it would probably be 

 found best for aD the parties concerned, to have a person, in 

 each vessel on board which the plants are shipped, suffici- 

 ently acquainted with the business of a gardener, to take the 

 entire charge of the plants during the passage. 



After an ample stock of all the desirable plants had been 

 secured in England, the gardener might be recalled ; but the 

 plan, if successful, is capable of much extension ; for if a per- 

 son of sufficient abilities was appointed, he might extend his 

 researches to the Phillippine Islands, Chochin-china, the 

 Malay Peninsula and Islands, &c. &c. The garden at Macao 

 might become the depositary of an extensive collection of the 

 botanical riches of those places, from whence they might be 

 transported to Europe. 



