REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 257 
cloudy, with light drizzling rain, which was particularly favourable 
to all the so-lately-shifted plants; — every thing was so far pro¬ 
pitious. 
Our passage down (as it is called by navigators) the Chinese seas 
was quick, having a fine leading wind and clear tropical sky—the tem¬ 
perature daily increasing as we sailed nearly southward. 
Every one in the least acquainted with vegetation will readily con¬ 
ceive that this sudden and unnatural increase of heat affected the plants 
most seriously, by exciting them into premature action, and therefore 
it became our duty to check this early growth by every means we 
could devise. The freest-growing plants had the points of their shoots 
pinched off, and these at the same time were kept rather dry. The 
pssonias showed many flower-buds, but, lest they should be weakened 
by blooming, the whole were cut off but one on each plant. The 
camellias had several flower-buds unexpanded ; but these, soon as they 
felt a warmer sky, together with the confined air of the boxes, dropped 
off before they were expanded. The azaleas were extremely affected ; 
their attenuated spray crowded with flower-buds, expended, as it were, 
every drop of sap in the branches, and much more than the enfeebled 
roots were able to re-supply. Shading in the middle of the day, and 
frequent sprinkling over-head, were considered necessary, and were 
constantly bestowed. 
The night air was deemed peculiarly refreshing to the plants, and 
this cost us many all-night watches to afford ; for if a squall happened 
in the first, second, or even in the morning watch, the platform must 
be closed down, lest the men might have occasion to use it in making 
or taking-in sail. Regular watering was always bestowed, according 
as the plants individually appeared to require it; and if any of the 
baskets or pots became saturated or soddened, the moss was removed 
and the surface stirred up. 
This narrative is defective in not being accompanied with dates to 
most of the occurrences. The fact is, we destroyed our daily memo¬ 
randum-book many years ago, and at a time when we had not the most 
distant idea that ever an extract from it would be useful; but, from 
occasional remarks in other books in our possession, we find that in 
three days after leaving Macao, the heat, as indicated by the thermo¬ 
meter under the awning of the quarter-deck, was eighty-seven degrees, 
and never fell below seventy-five till we were approaching the Cape of 
Good Hope, nearly two months afterward. 
This was the first and severest trial the plants had to sustain, more 
especially as every day brought us nearer the equator; and on nearing 
the coast of Borneo, and in a day or two afterward, coasting along the 
VOL. V.—NO. LXI. L L 
