PLANTS. 
181 
grading process by the harder rocks. The soil on the surface in this 
part of our route was generally of a dark red, and seemed peculiarly 
favourable to the growth of pines. Large plantations of these covered 
the hills in the neighbourhood of See-chou, where we anchored on 
the 8th of December. 
The Pinus Massoniana of Mr. Lambert still continued to be the most 
general species of fir, but was occasionally mingled with the Pinus 
lanceolata of the same author. We usually found this last tree a young 
and flourishing plant, seldom more than eight or ten feet high, rarely 
reaching to twenty or thirty. Here also we gathered the tea-plant, 
apparently in its native habitat, near no plantation. It was a small 
shrub of what has commonly been considered the green variety. 
The Dryandra cordata of Thunberg, Tong-choo of the Chinese, grew 
in the same place. From the seeds of this plant the Chinese extract 
an oil which they use as a varnish for their boats and coarser articles of 
furniture. They often mix it with the more valuable varnish obtained 
from a species of Rhus , and sell the compound as the superior article. 
I did not see the true varnish tree growing, but judging from spe- 
cimens brought to me by my friends, have little doubt of its 
being an undescribed species of Rhus , and not the Rhus vernix. 
In the remainder of our route through the province of Kiang-si, the 
most striking productions of the soil were those which I have already 
described", but every day brought me some new and very rare 
species of smaller plants. Of these, a new species of Eugenia, 
which as it is perhaps the smallest of its genus, has been named 
Eugenia microphylla , covered the declivities of almost every hill in 
the province of Kiang-si. It is a very elegant plant, strongly re- 
sembling a myrtle, and grows to the height of one or two feet.* It 
bears thick terminal clusters of dark purple berries, which were eaten 
by our Chinese attendants. 
On the 18th the Embassy reached the city of Nan-gan-foo, situ- 
ated at the northern base of the Mei-ling mountain. This city differed 
# 
See Appendix, 
