214 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIII. 
parts of the country, were continually showing them- 
selves, and making me regret that I had no means at 
hand of adding them to my collections. A small species 
of deer — the one formerly noticed — was most abundant, 
and I was told by the Chinese that wild boars and 
tigers are not unfrequently seen here. 
On the third evening after leaving Woo-e-shan we 
arrived at a bustling little town named She-pa-ky, 
which was on the main road between Tsong-gan-hien 
and Pouching-hien. Here we spent the night. Up to 
this point our road had in many places been very bad, 
but now we were told it was an excellent one all the 
way to Pouching-hien, which was only about a day's 
journey farther on. She-pa-ky is situated in the midst 
of a fine valley, which is extremely fertile. Rice is the 
staple production, but I also observed large quantities of 
nelumbium cultivated in the low irrigated lands. The 
rhizoma, or underground stem, of this plant is largely 
used by the Chinese as an article of food, and at the 
proper season of the year is exposed for sale in all the 
markets. It is cut into small pieces and boiled, and, 
like the young shoots of the bamboo, is served up in one 
of the small dishes which crowd a Chinese dinner- table. 
An excellent kind of arrowroot is also made from the 
same part of this useful plant. Tobacco is also grown 
extensively in this part of the country, as it is in all 
parts of the province of Fokien. The hills around this 
plain were in some parts prettily covered with trees, 
while in others they seemed uncultivated and barren. 
As we approached Pouching-hien we again entered a 
tea-country, and the shrub was observed growing on 
