Chap. XIX. 



SHANGHAE GARDENS. 



317 



old couple, two sons with their wives, and a large 

 number of young children. The Chinese in the 

 country always live in little colonies of this descrip- 

 tion. When a son marries, the wife is brought home, 

 and a portion of the building is set apart for their 

 use. Here they live together in the most harmonious 

 manner, and the grandchildren, when they grow up 

 and marry, occupy a part of the same buildings, 

 rarely leaving the place of their birth. 



" Ah, you have come back !" " Are you well ?" 

 "How did the plants get home?" "Were they 

 much admired in England ? " were the questions 

 which were rapidly put to me by the old nurseryman 

 and his sons ; at the same time they brought a chair, 

 and asked me to sit down under the awning of the 

 cottage. I told them that most of the plants had 

 arrived safely in England, that they had been greatly 

 admired, and that the beautiful Weigela had even 

 attracted the notice of her Majesty the Queen. All 

 these statements, more particularly the last, seemed 

 to give them great pleasure ; and they have doubtless 

 fancied the Weigela of more value ever since. 



This garden contains many of the beautiful plants 

 introduced by the Horticultural Society of London 

 from 1843 to 1846. Amongst some pots at the 

 entrance there were fine plants of the now well- 

 known Weigela, the pretty Indigofera decora, For- 

 sythia viridissima, and a fine white variety of Wis- 

 taria sinensis. Round the sides of the ditch were 

 many magnificent specimens of Edgeworthia cliry- 

 santha, and Gardenia florida Fortuniana, growing 



