154 



TEA DISTEICTS OF CHINA. Chap. YIII. 



All around wild flowers grew in great profusion. 

 The yellow Azalea chinensis seemed to paint the 

 hill-sides, so large were its flowers and vivid the 

 colours. There was another shrub which is new to 

 botanists, and scarcely yet known in Europe, called 

 Amelanchier racemosa, not less beautiful than the 

 azalea, and rivalling it in its masses of flowers of the 

 purest snowy white. 



As I descended the hill I passed a small and un- 

 assuming temple, erected, as the tablet states, to the 

 " honoured gods of the soil." The accompanying 

 sketch by Captain Cracroft gives a good idea of it. 



Small temples, or " tablets," of this description are 

 often met with on the roadsides, particularly in the 

 vicinity of monastic buildings. Idolatrous as they 

 are, they show a spirit of thankfulness to the Supreme 

 Being for the " showers that usher in the spring, and 

 cheer the thirsty ground." 



[Roadside Altar ] 



