TEA PLANT. 
221 
country. They are cultivated in such profusion at Canton, that 
their petals are sometimes used at feasts to strew upon the table, so 
as perfectly to cover every part unoccupied by dishes. 
The Azalias exhibited no striking varieties of colour, being either 
white or red, of different degrees of intensity; but were certainly 
the most beautiful plants that I met with in China. A very large 
specimen which I had on board the Alceste bearing blossoms of a 
light red, was in such profuse flower the day before the wreck, that 
its leaves were literally hidden. 
The Vaccinium formosa is a sacred plant; its flowers are gathered 
at the commencement of the Chinese new year, and placed in all 
the temples as an acceptable offering to the gods. 
The Lycopodium , which I had met with on the tops of barren 
hills in the province of Canton, growing to the height of four 
or five inches, and which might perhaps be best compared to a fir- 
tree in miniature, was to my surprise cultivated in pots kept in a 
tub filled with water ; for it had always been found in very arid 
situations. 
Almost all the dwarf plants seen in the gardens were elms, twisted 
into grotesque shapes. One of the principal methods of checking 
their growth, and giving them the appearance of age, appeared to 
consist, in taking up a young plant and putting it into a pot too 
small to allow the spreading of its roots, thereby depriving it of 
the means of vigorous growth ; and by afterwards wounding the 
bark in different places, so as to cover it with scars which might 
seem to be the consequence of decay; and by tying the branches to 
each other, and giving them all kinds of curves. 
Besides the plants already mentioned, I here saw the different 
varieties of the tea plant, of which it has often been asked me 
since my return, whether there be more than one species. This 
question I have not been able satisfactorily to answer, although I 
had little doubt, when examining the different plants, that there 
were two species; but I could not at the time define their characters, 
and have since lost the specimens through which I had expected to 
