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TUNG-CHOW. 
into elegant curves, and shaded with graceful festoons the plants 
beneath. 
The Nelumbium is used by the Chinese to decorate lakes and 
other ornamental water, and to give a charm and productiveness to 
marshes otherwise unsightly and barren. Near Yuen-Ming-Yuen, 
and under the walls of Pekin, I saw it covering with pink and 
yellow blossoms large tracts of land, and could sympathise with 
the enthusiasm of the Chinese bards, who have sung of the delight 
of moonlight excursions on rivers covered with the flowering 
Lien-wha .* Its seeds, in size and form like a small acorn without 
its cup, are eaten green or dried as nuts, and are often preserved 
as sweetmeats : they have a nut-like flavour. Its roots, sometimes 
as thick as the arm, of a pale green without and whitish within, 
in a raw state are eaten as fruit, being juicy and of a sweetish^ and 
refreshing flavour ; and when boiled, are served as vegetables. fBoth 
seeds and roots were frequently sent with the dessert to the Ambas- 
sador’s table: the former were relished by us, but the latter were 
too fibrous to be eaten with pleasure. The leaves are said to 
possess a strengthening quality ; the seed vessel to cure the colic, 
to facilitate parturition, and to counteract the effects of poison. 
The Nelumbium is readily raised by the Chinese in all parts of 
the empire through which we passed, but seemed to flourish better 
in the northern than the southern provinces ; and, according to 
the Missionaries, grows most luxuriantly beyond the great wall. 
I was unable to obtain much information respecting its culture, 
and none that was new. It does not appear that much art is used. 
Its leaves are watered in the summer, and cut down close to 
the roots on the approach of winter. 
The inhabitants were very liberal in their gifts of cultivated plants, 
allowing me to select specimens for drying ; and whenever I ex- 
pressed a wish to possess living ones, they readily gave them to me. 
* Memoires concernant les Chinois, tom. iii. 437. 
