YANG-TSE-KIANG. 
169 
wardia allied to Woodwardia Japonica, but differing from it, in having 
acute lobes. 
An Ilex was brought me, which I have been unable to distinguish 
from the Ilex aquifolium of this country. A species, I believe, of mul- 
berry, with fruit of the colour and general appearance of a strawberry, 
but clustered around the branches, was also gathered in this part of our 
route. 
Leaving Nan-kang-foo on the 20th, the Embassy arrived the same 
day at Woo-ching-chin, situated, according to Mr. Morrison, on the 
left bank of the Tan-ho, which flows by the capital of Kiang-si, and 
enters the Po-yang lake. Woo-ching-chin is a great depot for the 
commodities of various provinces, and is distinguished by its nume- 
rous Kwung-kwan, or halls of merchants. At Woo-ching-chin, the 
boats quitted the Po-yang lake, and, proceeding on their route, 
reached Nan-chan g-foo on the twenty-third. 
My readers may, in this part of my work, complain of the rapid 
manner in which I have hurried them over upwards of two hundred 
miles of one of the finest rivers of China, and across one of its largest 
lakes. I have done so, because I believed that a short and general 
description, accompanied by a map of our route, rendered as expressive 
as circumstances will admit, would be more interesting than a de- 
tailed account of the different towns and temples visited on their 
banks. Every thing artificial in China has nearly the same characters 
in every province. A person who has seen one of its cities has in a 
good measure seen them all. The materials of which they are formed 
differ as their situation affords clay or stone, but their style of building 
is always the same. Such also is the case with their pagodas : they 
differ in height, and the number of their stages; but a pagoda at Pekin, 
at Nankin, or at Canton, would each afford nearly the same description. 
The features of the country, however, are infinitely varied. China, 
from the great extent of latitude contained in its boundaries, and from 
its extensive plains and lofty mountains, partakes of the advantages 
send defects of many climates. The weather and the season during the 
passage of the Embassy, prevented them from forming a correct judg- 
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