68 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. IV. 
/ known. The only plant seen here which has any 
resemblance to those of the tropics is the species of 
palm which I have already noticed, but it seems mnch 
more hardy than any other variety of its race. A 
species of holly not unlike the English is common ; and 
various species of the oak, the pine, and the juniper are 
also found in great abundance. The grasses, ferns, and 
other low-growing bushes and herbaceous plants of 
northern countries, are here represented by various 
species of the same genera. 
In the green-tea district of Hwuy-chow, and I believe 
in all other parts where the shrub is cultivated, it is 
multiphed by seeds. The seeds are ripe in the month 
of October. When gathered they are generally put into 
a basket, and mixed up with sand and earth in a damp 
state, and in this condition they are kept until the 
spring. If this plan is not pursued only a small portion 
of them will germinate. Like the seeds of the oak and 
chestnut, they are destroyed when exposed to sudden 
changes in temperature and moisture. 
In the month of March the seeds are taken out of the 
basket and placed in the ground. They are generally 
sown thickly, in rows or in beds, in a nursery, or in 
some spare comer of the tea-farm, and sometimes the 
vacancies in the existing plantations are made up by 
sowing five or six seeds in each vacant space. 
"When the young plants are a year old they are in a 
fit state for transplanting. This is always done at the 
change of the monsoon in spring, when fine warm 
showers are of frequent occurrence. They are planted 
in rows about four feet apart, and in groups of five or 
