Chap. XIX. NURSERY-GARDENS. 317 
quarters in his house during my stay in the place. 
As my principal object in visiting this part of 
China was to obtain new plants for introduction to 
Europe, I lost no time in making the usual in- 
quiries regarding the nursery gardens. Mr. Wild, 
a neighbour of Mr. Hanssen, who had resided for 
some time in Tien-tsin, was good enough to tell 
me of an extensive nursery on the banks of the 
Grand Canal in the western suburbs, and offered 
to accompany me to it. I gladly availed myself 
of his offer, and we set out one afternoon to 
examine it. As I was now several degrees further 
north than I had ever been before in China, and 
as the climate was very different from that of the 
districts I had formerly explored, I was in great 
hopes of finding many trees and shrubs entirely 
new, and looked forward to my visit to this garden 
with much interest. On reaching it I observed 
large quantities of plants cultivated in pots, hut, 
curious enough, they were nearly all southern 
species, such as I had formerly met with in the 
gardens of Canton and Foo-chow. The Mole-hwa 
{Jasminum sambac) seemed to be the greatest 
favourite; hundreds of this plant were arranged 
in rows, and raised a little from the ground by 
being placed on empty flower-pots. Olea fragrans, 
pomegranates, oranges, limes, and such well- 
known things, were numerous and well cultivated. 
The only representatives of a cold climate, such 
as that from Shangae northward, were Jasminum 
