FINE OAK-TBEE. 
Chap. XXIII. 
On the sides of these hills I met with a new oak- 
tree ( Quercus sinensis) of great interest and beauty. 
It grows to a goodly size — sixty to eighty feet, 
and probably higher — has large glossy leaves, and 
its bark is rough, somewhat resembling the cork- 
tree of the south of Europe. Its acorns were just 
ripe, and were lying in heaps in all the temple- 
courts. They are eagerly bought up by traders, 
and are used in the manufacture of some kind of 
dye. I secured a large quantity of these acorns ; and 
they are now growing luxuriantly in Mr. Standish’s 
nursery at Bagshot. As this fine tree is almost 
certain to prove perfectly hardy in Europe, it will 
probably turn out to be one of the most valuable 
things I have brought away from Northern China. 
A species of maple and an arbor-vitse of gigantic 
size were also met with on these hills, apparently 
distinct from the species found in the more 
southern provinces of the Chinese empire, and 
walnut-trees were observed covered with fruit in 
some of the temple-gardens. Amongst wild plants 
on these hill-sides there was a pretty species of 
Vitex resembling V. agnus-castus , and a neat little 
fern ( Pteris argentea) was growing on some old 
walls. Amongst the plants cultivated for their 
flowers by the 1 priests, I observed oleanders, 
moutans, pomegranates, and such things as I had 
already noticed in the gardens of Peking. A 
marble bridge of great age spanned the bed of a 
mountain stream, which was dry at this season ; 
and examples of nature’s rockwork, looking almost 
