46 WANDERINGS IN CHINA. Chap. IV. 
hills. On inquiry I was informed that this crop was cul- 
tivated almost exclusively for manure. The large fresh 
i leaves of the trefoil are also picked and used as a vege- 
i table by the natives. 3^(5 
The oil-plant, Brassica chinensis, is in seed and 
ready to be taken from the ground in the beginning o^ 
May. This plant is extensively grown in this part of 
China, both in the province of Chekiang and also in 
Kiangsoo, and there is a great demand for the oil which 
is pressed from its seeds. For the information of readers 
not acquainted with botany, I may state that this plant 
is a species of cabbage, producing flower-stems three or 
four feet high, with yellow flowers, and long pods of seed 
like all the cabbage tribe. In April, when the fields are 
I in bloom, the whole country seems tinged with gold, and 
j the fragrance which fills the air, particularly after an 
April shower, is delightful. 
The small ox-plough, and the celebrated water-wheel, 
which is here worked by hand, are the two principal 
implements in husbandry ; the plough seems a rude 
thing, but it answers the purpose remarkably well, and 
is probably better for the Chinese in their present state, 
with their oxen and bulfaloes, than our more improved im- 
plement. An immense quantity of water is raised with 
great ease by the water-wheel, and is made to flow into 
the different rice-flats with great rapidity. I have often 
stood for a considerable time looking on and admiring 
the simplicity and utility of this contrivance. 
y The flora of Chusan, and all over the main land in 
this part of the province of Chekiang, is very different 
from that of the south. Almost all the species of a 
