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golden carp is one of the most distinguished kinds, and has long been known and propagated in Europe from the original specimens which were carried by the Dutch, first to Java, and thence to Holland. They ornament most of the gardens in China, being kept in artificial ponds, or large earthen and porcelain vessels, interspersed with tufts of mosses, or ferns over rock-work. It is sometimes necessary to cover these ponds with nets, to preserve the inmates from numerous king-fishers, which come early in the morning to prey on them. Of edible sea-fish, the best kind near Canton is a sort of rock-cod, called Shek-pân, which has exactly the meaning of that term. A flat fish, called Tsâng-yu by the Chinese, and "pomfret" by Europeans, is esteemed little inferior to the first. Soles are good and plentiful; but the fish most valued by native epicures is the sturgeon, partly because it is scarce, and partly on account of its gelatinous nature-a quality always valued in the dishes of the country. The Chinese stew made from this fish is so palatable as to have been introduced at the tables of Europeans. Some gastronome or other has observed that every country affords at least one good dish.

Among insects, it has been elsewhere noticed that the locust commits occasionally great ravages in particular districts, and rewards are given for its destruction. Some of the most poisonous tribes, as scorpions, are not met with at Canton; but the centipede, which the Chinese call by exactly the same name, pě-tso (hundred feet), is common. There is a monstrous spider that inhabits trees, attaining to such a size and strength as to enable it to devour small birds. A large species of cicada is common also among trees, emitting a loud and even stunning noise by the vibration of two flaps under the abdomen, supposed to be a call to the female. They generally keep up this

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whizzing sound most constantly during the hot sunny days. Dr. Abel enumerates the Scarabæus molossus, the Cerambyx furinosus, as well as the mole-cricket, of a large size. At a mountain lying eastward of Canton, called Lo-fowshan, there are butterflies of a gigantic size and very brilliant colours, so celebrated as to be alluded to in poetry, and a selection of the most splendid specimens sent annually to Peking. The pe-la-shoo, or wax-tree, affords nourishment to an insect which is supposed to belong to the coccus tribe, but has not been very exactly ascertained. In the Asiatic Researches' (vol. xiv. p. 182) is described an Indian insect which generates a featherlike secretion from its abdomen; this, dropping on the leaves, hardens there into a substance resembling wax. It is probably identical with the species observed by our first embassy on the coast of Cochin-China, which is figured in the first volume of Staunton,* and described as "of a curious structure, having pectinated appendages rising in a curve bent towards the head, not unlike the form of the tail feathers of the common fowl, but in the opposite direction. Every part of the insect was in colour of a perfect white, or at least completely covered with a white powder." The stem of the particular shrub, resembling privet, which was covered by the insects, was entirely whitened by a similar substance.

In the department of botany our limits will not admit of noticing any but the most remarkable or important plants and trees of China. At the head of these of course stands the tea-plant. The specimens brought from the black and green tea countries differ slightly in the leaf, the latter being a thinner leaf, rather lighter in colour and longer in shape than the other. But, besides this, the great difference in the preparation contributes to mark the distinctions between the two kinds of the manufactured article; for the Chinese themselves acknowledge that * Page 353.

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either black or green tea may be prepared from any teaplant. The green teas are less subjected to the action of fire than the black, and therefore retain more of the original colour and peculiar qualities of the leaf; but they are at the same time infinitely more liable to suffer from time and damp. If the two kinds of tea-leaves are examined, after having been expanded in hot water, it will be observed that the black contain the stems of the leaves, as well as some portion of the stalks on which they grew, while the Hyson leaves have generally been pinched off above the leaf-stem. The black tea thus contains much of the woody fibre, while the fine green is exclusively the fleshy part of the leaf itself, which is one good reason why it should be dearer.

Che-keang produces green tea; but the principal district is in Keang-nân, at the north-west extremity of a

range of hills dividing that province from Chě-keang, between the thirtieth and thirty-first parallels of north latitude. The tea-plant was first seen by us in the embassy, on the return from Peking, not far from this district, on the southern bank of the Yang-tse-keang, where the soil was composed partly of a micaceous sand. The black-tea country is in. Fokien, between 27° and 28° latitude, on the south-east declivities of a range of hills dividing that province from Keang-sy. The tea-shrub succeeds best on the sides of mountains, where there is a small accumulation of vegetable soil. We observed it always elevated above the plains, in situations where the soil was a disintegration of sandstone or of granite, similar to the habitat of the single camellia, from whose seeds an oil is extracted. Dr. Abel hence infers that the hills at the Cape would afford the best situation and climate for the growth of tea; and it has been actually found to flourish on the higher parts of St. Helena. As a substitute for tea, the poorer Chinese sometimes use an infusion of dried fern-leaves, and we found these commonly sold for the express purpose near the Poyang lake.

The camellia bears the same name, among the Chinese, with the tea-shrub, and possesses most of its botanical characters. They in fact constitute two genera very closely allied, of which the distinctions, consisting principally in the seed, have been accurately noted by Dr. Wallich. The seed vessel of the tea is a three-lobed capsule, with the lobes strongly marked, and each of them of the size of a black currant, containing one round seed. When ripe, each of the three lobes bursts vertically in the middle, and exposes the seed. The capsule of the camellia is not lobular externally, but contains altogether three seeds, like that of the tea, though of a longer shape.

In the year 1834 it was discovered that the real tea

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plant was indigenous to the Company's territories in Upper Assam, bordering on the Chinese province of Yun-nân: and there now appears to be every reason for feeling certain that it may be cultivated, under proper management, with complete success, for commercial purposes, as well as for local consumption. An Assam tea company has been actually established, in consequence of the successful out-turn of some specimens of produce sent home to England.

While Lord Hardinge was Governor-General of India, he successfully established tea-plantations in the country of Kumaon, bordering on the Himalaya range. The author of this furnished at his request some native Chinese

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