REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 219 
allowed to retain the peels, which are carefully preserved for some 
purpose or other. There are several tropical fruits, as the Musa 
paradisiaca, pine-apples, quavas, dates, tamarinds, together with 
pomegranates, grapes, apricots, plums, peaches, including the little 
dwarf one (P . nana) ; pears from the northern provinces, but infe¬ 
rior; melons, cucumbers, and several sorts of gourds, chestnuts, olives, 
&c., besides a few which are peculiar to that empire, as the litchee 
and loungan (Euphoria), and loquat ( Eriobotrya ). They have 
also a fruit, resembling a plum, called Kisumchu , which is probably 
an Anona; another called Pack-lam , a beautiful tree, having tine 
large pinnated leaves, and bearing drupaceous fruit about the size of 
a damson-plum. The Gaura trichoides is also ranked among their 
fruit -trees. 
Of their dwarfed trees. — We have already observed that the 
Chinese are remarkable for their taste in wishing to have even the 
most stupendous objects in nature in miniature: mountains, rocks, 
lakes, rivers, aged trees, must all be represented and modelled upon a 
scale of a few inches. The former are formed of natural fragments 
curiously and fantastically cemented together, leaving water-tight hol¬ 
lows and little channels to represent lakes and rivers. The dwarfed 
trees are, however, very curiously trained, requiring considerable 
skill, and a considerable period of time, to get the trees into the 
desired form. 
The trees which they commonly choose to train as dwarfs are, their 
native juniper (J. Chinensis), he dw T arf elm (IJlmuspumila) , and the 
Indian fig (F . Indica ). The means employed in dwarfing these plants 
are,—keeping them always in the same pot—allowing but little earth 
for them to grow in, the pot being half filled with rugged stones, which 
jut out of the surface;—among these some of the roots are brought out, 
twisted together, and the points again buried in the soil: no more 
water is given than but barely keeps the plants alive. The bark of 
the stem and branches is torn and mangled in all manner of ways; 
sometimes a branch is slipped from the stem, but not entirely off, so as 
to hang downward, and kept in that position by wire. By wires, also, 
the tortuous direction of the shoots are given ; and being repeatedly 
stopped, and the half of every leaf cut off, tends materially to check 
all vegetative inherent vigour, and in time produces a vegetable 
cripple. When the native vigour is thus subdued, the plant becomes 
subject to moss, lichens, and every weather-stain so desirable on such 
an object, to give the idea of hoar antiquity to a plant only of ten 
or a dozen years’ growth. Such dwarfed trees are considered valuable ; 
