and lie was subsequently engaged by the East India 
Company, to return to China, to collect lea plants, 
for transmission to the British provinces in India, 
in which he has already proved very successful. 
The time may not be very distant when Great 
Britain, through her Indian dependencies, may not 
only supply herself with Tea, but become a competi- 
tor with China in the sale of that article to foreign 
nations. 
Respecting Forsytliia viridissima, which is a val- 
uable acquisition to our hardy early-flowering shrubs, 
we will permit Mr. Fortune to speak for himself. 
He says “ This is a deciduous shrub, with very dark 
green leaves, which are prettily serrated at the mar- 
gin. It grows about eight or ten feet high, in the 
north of China, and sheds its leaves in autumn. It 
then remains dormant, like many of the deciduous 
shrubs of Europe, but is remarkable for the num- 
ber of large prominent buds which are scattered 
along the young stems produced the summer before. 
Early in spring these buds, which are flower buds, 
gradually unfold themselves, and present a profu- 
sion of bright yellow blossoms all over the shrub, 
which is highly ornamental.” It was met with in 
the garden of a Mandarin, near Tinghae, with the 
Wigelia rosea, which we have described at No. 1187. 
Both plants, it is said, are great favourites with the 
Chinese, and are grown in all the gardens of the 
rich in the north of China. 
We were obligingly supplied with flowering spe- 
cimens, by Mr. Catlin, Curator of the Birmingham 
Horticultural Societ} T ’s Garden, where it is trained 
on a wall of south aspect, and flowers profusely. 
