400 
MR. FORTUNES MISSION TO CHINA 
winter of 1843, which were said to be very 
splendid things, and entirely different in 
colour from any of the kind which were known 
in England. The history of this purchase is 
rather amusing, and affords a curious example 
of the kind of duplicity which I had to contend 
with. I had drawings with me of various 
Moutan Pseonies which were said to exist in 
the country ; and when these were shown to 
a Chinese nurseryman in Shanghae, he said 
he could get them, but that they were only to 
be procured at a place called Soo-chou, dis- 
tant nearly a hundred miles, and that it would 
be rather expensive to bring them down. I 
asked him how many kinds there were, what 
were the colours of their flowers, and finally 
expressed a wish to have a certain number of 
each. He told me very gravely that he would 
undertake to send to Soo-chou for them pro- 
viding [ would pay him at the rate of a dollar 
for each plant. I was too anxious to get them 
to make any objections to the price, which, 
after all, was not much out of the way, if they 
were to be brought about a hundred miles. 
In the stipulated time the plants were deli- 
vered to me in excellent order and the money 
was paid. They were then taken down to 
Hong Kong and dispatched to England, where 
they arrived in very fair condition. I had of 
course no opportunity of seeing their flowers 
at that time, and was now (April, 1844) 
anxious to get some more in flower, and in- 
tended to send my old friend back again to 
Soo-chou for another collection, stipulating 
however this time that all the plants should 
be in flower in order that I might have an 
opportunity of seeing their colours. One 
morning, however, as I w r as going out into 
the country, a short distance from Shanghae, 
I was surprised by meeting a countryman 
with a load of Moutans in full bloom. The 
flowers were very large and fine, and the 
colours were dark purples, lilacs, and deep 
i*«Bs, kinds of which the very existence was 
always doubted in England, and which are 
never seen at Canton. Dr. Lockhart, an ex- 
cellent Chinese scholar, being with me at the 
time, we soon found out the name of the 
Moutan district ; and from the state of the 
roots in the man's basket, I was quite certain 
that the plants had not been more than an* 
hour or two out of the ground, and that there- 
fore the distance from Shanghae could not 
exceed six or eight miles, a surmise which we 
afterwards found to be perfectly correct. This 
was doubtless the place where my nursery 
friend had procured his plants in the autumn 
before, and where he would have gone again 
had I not been lucky enough to find that I 
could easily go there myself. Indeed I after- 
wards discovered there was no Moutan country 
in the vicinity of Soo-chou, having met a man , 
from that place in the Shanghae district, 
where he had come for the express purpose of 
buying Tree Pasonies to take home. I was 
now out in the Moutan district daily during 
the time the different plants were coming into 
bloom, and secured some most striking and 
beautiful kinds for the Horticultural Society. 
" Several very distinct and beautiful Azaleas 
were added to my collections during this sum- 
mer, at Shanghae, as well as many other 
plants of an ornamental character which have 
not yet been described. Many of these things 
are expected to prove hardy enough to thrivv 
in the open air in this country, and others 
will make excellent plants for the green-house. 
My researches this year were extended for 
some distance into the interior, which is inter- 
sected in all directions by canals — in fact the 
canals in the north of China are the highways 
of the country, and the boats are the carriages. 
The heat during the months of July and 
August was very oppressive, the thermometer 
frequently standing at 100° Fahr. in the 
shade. 
" In the autumn, after the seeds which I had 
marked were ripe, I got my collections together 
and sailed for Hong Kong, in order to make 
my shipments for England. These consisted 
of twenty-one glazed cases of living plants, 
and one bag of seeds, which were sent home 
in four different vessels. Many of the plants 
were of course duplicates A the best species 
which were shipped in the spring of the same 
year, but a number of them were now sent for 
the first time. Amongst the latter the follow- 
ing may be noticed as arriving in England 
alive for the first time : — 
Tree paeonies, with purple 
and lilac flowers, &c. 
(twenty plants). 
Spiraea prunifolia fl. pleno. 
„ sp. 
Calystegia pubescens fl. 
pleno 
The Chinese five- coloured 
rose 
Rosa sp. (a curious ane- 
mone flowered kind) 
Kdguorihia chrysantha 
Hydrangea sp. from the 
woods of Ti'in-iung 
Rhynchospermum jasmi- 
noides 
Acer sp. from Japan 
Mandarin onmge (true) 
Campanula sp. (Lilac) 
Fortunasa chinensis 
Lycopodiuin Willdeuovii 
„ caesium 
Gardenia florida, var. For- 
tuniana 
Pinus sp. from Japan 
» ,. Ningpo 
Juniperus sp. North of 
China 
Bamboos (northern varie- 
ties) 
Viburnum sp. These are 
fine shrubs, with lar^e 
round heads of- flowers 
like the Gueldres rose 
Shanghai peach — a fine 
large variety 
and several other plants to which I cannot at 
present give any names. 
" The last shipment at this time was made 
on the 31st of December, 1844. As it was 
still winter in the northern provinces, and as 
nothing could be done in the south, I deter- 
mined to go over to the Philippine Islands 
for a few weeks, and accordingly sailed for 
Manilla in the beginning of January, 1845. 
