Chap. IX. 



TOWN OF NAN-CHE. 



175 



boasted of three or four nurseries ; and as it is a cen- 

 tral place, and at a great distance from Shanghae, 

 Ning-po, and the other coast towns, I was not without 

 hope of finding some new and valuable plants worthy 

 of being sent to England. 



I passed through some crowded streets of the same 

 description as those at Shanghae. All Chinese towns 

 have a striking resemblance to each other ; the shops 

 are built and arranged in the same way, they contain 

 the same kinds of articles, and everything about them 

 seems alike. A person, therefore, who has seen one 

 large Chinese city can form a good idea of all the 

 rest in the empire. 



I found the nursery-gardens in the suburbs of the 

 town. I examined three of them, but could find 

 nothing new or worth taking away. They contained 

 large quantities of jasmines (Jasminum Sambac), 

 clerodendrons, roses, azaleas, camellias, and nelum- 

 biums, but nothing that was new to me, or that I had 

 not found in abundance nearer the coast. The gar- 

 deners were extremely civil, and did not seem to 

 have the slightest idea that a foreigner stood before 

 them. The only thing which surprised them was 

 the information that their gardens did not contain the 

 flowers which I wanted. They inquired the names 

 of the plants I was looking for, and I told them that 

 I wanted new ones, such as were not to be found in 

 the gardens at Soo-chow, Hang-chow, and places 

 nearer the coast. "Ah," said they, "you cannot 

 expect to find in Nan-che anything which is not in 

 Soo-chow." My visit being fruitless, I returned to 



