8 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. I. 
shown by my thermometer was 94° Fahr., and the 
minimum in the same time was 80°. The difference 
between the heat of day and night is generally about 
10 degrees. In winter the thermometer sometimes 
sinks as low as the freezing point, but this is a rare 
occurrence. Even in the midst of winter, when the sun 
shines, it is scarcely possible to walk out without the 
shelter of an umbrella, and if any one has the hardihood 
to attempt it he invariably suffers for his folly. The air 
is so dry that one can scarcely breathe, and there is no 
shade to break the force of the almost vertical rays of 
the sun. At other times in winter, the wind blows cold 
and cutting from the north, and fires are necessary in 
the houses ; indeed, at all seasons the climate is liable 
to sudden changes of temperature. 
The botany of the island possesses a considerable 
degree of interest, at least would have done so some 
years ago, when the plants indigenous to it were less 
known than they now are. By far the most beautiful 
plants met with on the low ground are the different 
species of Lagerstroemia. There are two or three 
varieties, having red, white, and purple flowers, and in 
the summer months, when they are in bloom, they are 
quite the hawthorns of China, — surpassing in their 
gorgeous flowers even that beautiful family. I have 
generally met with them in a wild state very near the 
sea-shore. A little higher up we find the beautiful 
Ixora coccinea flowering in profusion in the clefts of 
the rocks, and its scarlet heads of bloom under the 
Hong-kong sun are of the most dazzling brightness. 
The ravines are crowded with ferns and creeping shrubs 
