Chap. XX. 



THE YANG-MAE. 



345 



however, much superior to the Indian. Indeed, I 

 believe the Chinese have both, but use the Indian 

 one as a stock for grafting upon. 



There is a very large plantation of this tree in 

 Chusan, and the fruit was beginning to be brought 

 to the market during my stay there. It was sold at 

 a very cheap rate, and was considered a great luxury 

 by the natives. 



I had frequently seen the trees of the Yang-mae, 

 but never when in fruit, so I determined to visit one 

 of the plantations. Starting very early one morn- 

 ing, I crossed over the first range of hills, and found 

 myself in the centre of the island with my view 

 bounded by hills in all directions. On the sides of 

 these inland hills there were large quantities of the 

 Yang-mae. The trees were bushy, round-headed, and 

 from fifteen to twenty feet in height. They were at 

 this time loaded with dark-red fruit, not unlike, at 

 first sight, the fruit of our x\rbutus, although very 

 differently formed and much larger. I observed two 

 kinds, one with red fruit, and the other with fruit of 

 a yellowish colour. The trees formed most striking 

 objects on the hill side. 



The natives were busily engaged in gathering the 

 fruit and packing it in baskets for the markets. 

 Large quantities are consumed in the city of Ting- 

 hae, the capital of Chusan, and a great deal is taken 

 across to the main land. The streets of Ning-po 

 used to be crowded with it during the season. The 

 gatherers appeared delighted to see a stranger, and 

 offered me liberal supplies of this fine fruit. It 



