420 



FINE NEW PLANT DISCOVEEED, Chap. XXT. 



here and tliere lazily on the sides of the hills, 

 which only had the effect of making the sky look 

 more clear and the scene around and below ns 

 more grand and lovely. 



We now gave our hostess and her boy a small 

 present for the inconvenience we had put them to, 

 and amidst their best wishes we resumed our 

 journey, which we had been obliged to abandon 

 the evening before. Without having any further 

 adventures of interest, we arrived in safety at the 

 old temple of Tsan-tsing. 



On the day following I went down to the plains 

 and onward to Ningpo. In the garden of an old 

 Chinese gentleman here, I met with a beautiful 

 new herbaceous plant, having rich blotched or 

 variegated leaves, which has since been named by 

 Dr. Lindley, Farfugium grande. It was growing 

 in a neat flower-pot, and was evidently much 

 prized by its possessor, and well it might, for it 

 was the most striking-looking plant in his garden. 

 He informed me he had received it from Peking 

 the year before, and that at present it was very 

 rare in Ningpo, but he thought I might be able to 

 procure a plant or two from a nurseryman in the 

 town to whom he had given a few roots. I lost 

 no time in paying a visit to the nursery indicated, 

 and secured the prize. It has reached England in 

 safety, and will shortly be a great ornament to 

 our houses and gardens. 



I had now brought my work in China to a suc- 

 cessful termination. Many thousands of tea-plants. 



