whole clump, and formed a pretty arbour underneath. When I saw it last it was in full flower, and had a most charming appearance. The Chinese are fond of growing the Glycine on trellis-work, and forming long covered walks in the garden, or arbours and porticos in front of their doors. I have already noticed a large specimen of this description in the garden of the British consulate at Shanghae. There is another remarkable one in the garden of a mandarin at Ning-po. Growing in company with it is the fine new variety introduced lately by the Horticultural Society of London, and described in the Journal of the Society. In foliage and general habit the two kinds are nearly alike, but the new one bears long racemes of pure white flowers. The kind old gentleman to whom the garden belonged (he is dead now) allowed me to make layers of this plant on the top of his house, and during the summer months, when I was travelling in other districts, attended to them and watered them with his own hands. When I saw him about a year ago he told me he was then nearly eighty years old. One of the gentlemen who accompanied me (Dr. Kirk, of Shanghae), being introduced to him as a medical man, was asked if he could live one year more. The old man said he knew he must die soon, but he was most anxious to live for another year, but feared he should not. His His presentiment was but too correct, for the next time I visited Ning-po, about six months after, I found the door of the mansion bricked up, and the garden neglected and overrun with weeds. CHAP. XIX. THE YELLOW CAMELLIA. 339 I visited several other nursery gardens about ten or twelve miles to the eastward of Shanghae. One of them contained a very remarkable plant which I must not omit noticing. Those who have read my 'Wanderings in China' may remember a story I told of my endeavours to find a Yellow Camellia,—how I offered five dollars for one-how a Chinaman soon found two instead of one-and how he got the money and I got taken in! In one of these nurseries, however, I found a yellow Camellia, and it was in bloom when I bought it. It is certainly a most curious plant, although not very handsome. The flowers belong to the anemone or Warratah class; the outer petals are of a French white, and the inner ones are of a primrose yellow. It appears to be a very distinct species in foliage, and may probably turn out more hardy than any of its race. CHAPTER XX. Safe arrival of tea-plants in India Means taken in China to engage tea manufacturers I visit Chusan - My lodgings A mandarin - His appearance at daylight A summer who smoked opium morning in Chusan An emperor's edict - The Yang-maeBeauty of its fruit - City of Ting-hae-Poo-too, or Worshipping Island - Ancient inscriptions in an unknown language - A Chinese caught fishing in the sacred lake - He is chased by the priests— The bamboo again-The sacred Nelumbium - My holidays expire -Collections of tea-seeds and plants made - Return to Shanghae -Tea manufacturers engaged - We bid adieu to the north of China. DURING the summer of 1850 I had the satisfaction of hearing that my collections of tea-plants had arrived safely at Calcutta. Owing to the excellent arrangements made there by Dr. Falconer, and at Allahabad by Dr. Jameson, they reached their destination in the Himalayas in good order. One of the objects of my mission to China had been, to a certain extent, accomplished. The Himalayan tea plantations could now boast of having a number of plants from the best tea-districts of China, namely, from the green-tea country of Hwuy-chow, and from the black-tea country of the Woo-e hills. I had now, however, what I believed to be a much more difficult and uncertain task before me. This was to procure tea manufacturers from some of the best districts. Had I wanted men from any of the CHAP. XX. CHUSAN. 341 towns on the coast, they might have been procured with the greatest ease. A shipload of emigrants had been induced to embark for California only a short time before, and emigration was carried on most extensively both at Amoy and Canton. But I wanted men from districts far inland, who were well acquainted with the process of preparing the teas. In order that I might accomplish this in a satisfactory manner, Mr. Beale kindly lent me his aid. His Compradore, who was a man highly respected by the Chinese and well known, undertook to conduct the negotiations. In the mean time I left Shanghae for the tea-districts about Ning-po, in order to make arrangements for another supply of seeds and young plants from that country. In the end of June the weather, as usual, became excessively hot, and it was dangerous to be out in the sun, more particularly in an inland district. I determined, therefore, to leave the old monastery where I was staying, and take up my quarters on some of the islands in the Chusan archipelago. I was anxious to see the island of Chusan, which we had held for some years after the war, but which is now once more in the possession of the Chinese. I found it a bustling place, and apparently greatly improved. The fine harbour was full of junks, some bound for the south, others for the north, and all seemed to make Chusan a kind of starting point. A large town had been built along the shore, and it was difficult to find out the old houses in which the English lived when the island was in possession of the Queen's troops. The large hospital built by the English was still standing, and, being now converted into a kind of customhouse and used for public purposes, I went there to look for quarters during my stay. Here I found an old mandarin, who received me politely, and offered me a room upstairs next to his own. This old man was an inveterate opium-smoker. In the evening, when my servant was spreading out my bed, he happened to lay it by the wall next to the old man's room. "You had better not put your master's bed there," said one of the people connected with the office; "the Loi-ya smokes opium, and makes a disagreeable noise in his sleep." I found this was too true. About nine o'clock in the evening the old man lay down in his bed, lighted his little lamp, and began to inhale the fumes of the intoxicating drug. He was smoking, at intervals, until I went to bed, and for some time afterwards. Between one and two o'clock in the morning I was awakened out of a sound sleep by a strange and unusual noise. It was some seconds before I could call to mind where I was or who was my neighbour. At last I remembered the warning which my servant had received. The drug had done its work; the old opium-smoker was evidently asleep and in the land of dreams. His nasal organs were producing most discordant sounds, and it was these and a harsh moaning noise which awoke me. |