324 NURSERY GARDENS. Chap. XIX. 
looked like a little oasis in the wide plain. The 
vines seemed to be nearly all of one and the same 
variety, and produced large berries of a greenish 
colour, getting darker as they ripened, and 
covered with bloom.* 
Neat* these vineyards, and sometimes amongst 
them, there were a number of large nursery 
gardens, where annuals and herbaceous plants 
were cultivated in enormous quantities. These 
consisted chiefly of balsams, coxcombs, African 
marygolds, China asters, tuberoses, and chrysan- 
themums. Here, as elsewhere, the pomegranate 
seemed an especial favourite, and it was largely 
grown. In addition to the trees already men- 
tioned as growing in this part of the country, I 
observed a poplar in these gardens, which grows 
to a large size, and is a tree of considerable 
beauty. Whether it be indigenous or introduced 
from some other country is at present unknown. 
From this description of the gardens, fruit-trees, 
vineyards, and ice-houses of Tien-tsin, it will be 
gathered that, with all its crumbling mud walls 
and filthy streets, there must be many wealthy 
people in it, to whom the luxuries of life are 
indispensable. In my experience as regards 
Chinese towns, I have always observed a curious 
connection between nursery gardens and a thriving 
trade which produces wealth. Where the one is 
found, the other is generally not far off. In proof 
* Another variety, with large thick-skinned oval berries, was com- 
