122 



TEA DISTEICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. VII. 



from expanding too rapidly. All these things had 

 been brought from the celebrated city of Soo-chow- 

 foo, the great emporium of Chinese fashion and 

 luxury. 



It may be thought that the Chinese have glass 

 houses, hot-water pipes, and all those fine things 

 which assist gardeners and amateurs in Europe. 

 Nothing of the kind; they do all these things in 

 their houses and sheds, with common charcoal fires, 

 and a quantity of straw to stop up the crevices in the 

 doors and windows. 



At this season of the year the " Kum-quat " (Ci- 

 trus japonica), which is extensively grown in pots, is 

 literally covered with its small, oval, orange-coloured 

 fruit. This as well as various other species of the 

 orange is mixed with the forced flowers, and to- 

 gether produce an excellent effect. I think if the 

 " Kum-quat " was better known at home it would be 

 highly prized for decorative purposes during the 

 winter months. It is much more hardy than any 

 other of its tribe ; it produces its flowers and fruit 

 in great abundance, and it would doubtless prove a 

 plant of easy cultivation. In order, however, to suc- 

 ceed with it as well as the Chinese do, one little fact 

 should be kept in view, namely, that all the plants 

 of the orange-tribe which bear fruit in a small state 

 are grafted. There is also a plant, with red berries, 

 which takes the place of our English holly. It is 

 the Nandina domestica, and is called by the Chinese 

 the "Tein-chok," or Sacred Bamboo. Large quan- 

 tities of its branches are brought in at this time from 



