Chap. XIIL 



THE ABIES K^MPFERI. 



287 



Ward's cases and sent to England, where tliey 

 arrived in good condition. 



I now parted from my friend Mr. Wang, who 

 returned to his mountain home at Quan-ting, 

 while I and my guide pursued our journey to- 

 wards the temple at which I was staying by a 

 different route from that by which we had come. 

 The road led us through the same kind of 

 scenery which I have endeavoured to describe — 

 mountains ; nothing but mountains, deep valleys, 

 and granite and clay-slate rocks — now bleak and 

 barren, and now richly covered with forests chiefly 

 consisting of oaks and pines. We arrived at the 

 monastery just as it was getting dark. My friends, 

 the priests, were waiting at the entrance, and 

 anxiously inquired what success had attended us 

 during the day. I told them the trees at Quan- 

 ting were just like their own — destitute of cones. 

 " Ah ! " said they, for my consolation, " next year 

 there will be plenty." 



I cannot agree with Dr. Lindley in calling this 

 an Abies, unless cedars and larches are also re- 

 ferred to the same genus. It is apparently a 

 plant exactly intermediate between the cedar and 

 larch ; that is, it has deciduous scales like the 

 cedar and deciduous leaves like the larch, and a 

 habit somewhat of the one and somewhat of the 

 other. However, it is a noble tree ; it produces 

 excellent timber, will be very ornamental in park 

 scenery, and I have no doubt will prove perfectly 

 hardy in England. 



