150 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. VIII. 



Three weeks afterwards one of my men arrived, 

 bringing with him a fine collection of young tea- 

 plants, which were no doubt obtained in the fine 

 black-tea district of Woo-e-shan. It appeared from 

 his account that he and his companion had fallen out 

 by the way, and had parted company at Kein-ning- 

 foo, soon after I left them. 



Wang had directions to proceed northwards from 

 Fokien into the district of Hwuy-chow, and to make 

 a further collection of tea-plants in the green-tea 

 country. He had been there with me in the previous 

 autumn. It would of course be much easier for him 

 to get his collections in the Bohea hills than in Hwuy- 

 chow ; and he would have had no difficulty in telling 

 me he had been in a country where he had not been, 

 bu f I had the following check upon him, which 

 proved useful more than once, and with others besides 

 Wang : — It may be recollected that, during my visit 

 to the green-tea country in the autumn before, I 

 discovered a beautiful evergreen shrub, the Berberis 

 japonica, and that was the only place in which I had 

 met with it. Wang was therefore told that he must 

 bring me some plants of this as well as the tea-plants, and 

 that if he did not do so he would have no claim to the 

 promised reward. He returned to Ning-po about five 

 weeks after the other servant, bringing me only a few 

 plants and a very long bill. However, he had really been 

 in Hwuy-chow, and what he brought me were valuable. 



Whilst waiting for these men at Ning-po I deter- 

 mined to pay a visit to my old quarters, the temple 

 of Tein-tung, situated amongst the hills about twenty 



