18 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. I. 



The gentlemen connected with the London Mis- 

 sionary Society have a village of their own about a 

 quarter of a mile back from the English town. Each 

 house has a good garden in front of it, full of inter- 

 esting Chinese shrubs and trees. Dr. Lockhart has 

 the finest collection. 



These short statements are sufficient to show what 

 has been done since the last war. Chinese plants 

 have not only been introduced to Europe and Ame- 

 rica, to enliven and beautify our parks and gardens, 

 but we have also enriched those of the Celestial 

 Empire with the productions of the West. Nothing, 

 I believe, can give the Chinese a higher idea of our 

 civilisation and attainments than our love for flowers, 

 or tend more to create a kindly feeling between us 

 and them. 



Before all these gardens could be stocked the 

 demand for shrubs and trees was necessarily great, 

 and varieties which in former days were compara- 

 tively rare about Shanghae have been brought down 

 in boat-loads and sold at very low prices. Good 

 young plants of Cryptomeria, three to four feet in 

 height, are now sold for thirty cash each, about a 

 penny of our money ; a hundred fine bushy plants of 

 the new Gardenia just noticed have frequently been 

 bought for a dollar. It is amusing to see the boat- 

 loads of plants ranged along the river banks to tempt 

 the eye of the English planter. They are chiefly 

 brought from the large towns of Soo-chow and Hang- 

 chow, the former fifty miles distant, and the latter 

 about a hundred. 



