164 
TA-TUNG. 
the cotton about, and separates it into fibres freed from all knots 
and impurities.* 
The country about Ta-tung was hilly and picturesque, and pro- 
ductive in rare plants. It was here that some of the trees and 
shrubs, peculiar to China, were first met with. A small plantation 
of tea, from its extent, seeming rather to be cultivated for 
experiment than for the purpose of manufacturing, was seen on 
the side of a hill. It was of the large-leaved variety. 
The plants most interesting to the finders, were several species 
of oak, occurring in large plantations. This tree, equally prized 
and used in China as in other countries, has been described and 
eulogised in the ancient books of the empire, and is designated 
by the appellation of the Tree of Inheritance.')' The same works 
assert, that oaks, upwards of a hundred feet in height and twenty- 
four in circumference, are frequent in China ; and that others have 
existed whose foliage covered an acre of ground. That for building, 
dyeing, and fuel, they are in general use. That their various parts 
used in medicine in other countries, are employed with similar views 
in China. That acorns are in some provinces an efficient article of 
food ; that some are esculent without preparation ; that others must 
be deprived of their crudeness, after being denuded of their husks, 
by grinding them in a mill, and subsequent immersion in water for 
several days ; and that both afford a farinaceous paste, which, mixed 
with the flour or corn, or by itself, is made into cakes. 
Such is the history of the Oak given by those who had the 
best means of arriving at information about it. I cannot learn that 
the gentlemen who visited the plantations of the tree near Ta-tung 
met with any circumstances either confirming or contradicting it. 
* This instrument scarcely at all differs from that figured in Sonnerat. — Voyage aux 
Indes Orientales, tom. i. p. 108. 
f Memoires concei nant les Chinois, tom. xiii. p. 484 — 490. This work contains a very 
interesting account of the oaks of China. 
