and will make it a general favourite when it becomes better known. The Chinese call this the Wang-shankwei, and it is said to have been discovered on Wangshan, a celebrated mountain in the district of Hwuy-chow.

After looking over the plants upon the stage, I passed on to the main portion of the nursery, which is situated behind the house. Here a beautiful sight was presented to the eye. Two large masses of Azaleas, arranged on each side of a small walk, were covered with flowers of the most dazzling brightness and beauty. Nor were they common kinds. Generally they belonged to the same section as A. indica (the varieties of A. variegata do not flower so early), but the species so common in Canton and the south were comparatively rare here. A most beautiful kind, having the habit of A. indica and half deciduous, had its flowers striped with pale blue or lilac lines, and sometimes blotches of the same colour upon a white ground. Not unfrequently it "sports "like the doubleblossomed peach already described, and then, in addition to its carnation-striped flowers, has some selfcoloured purple ones on the same plant. This species has been named Azalea vittata.

Another species allied to this, which I have named A. Bealei, had red stripes, and a third was mottled and striped in its flowers, the colours being still the same. These are all quite new, and they flower early in the season, fully three weeks or a month before that section to which A. variegata belongs. A red variety, which flowers later, is particularly worthy of notice. Its habit is different from any known species; its leaves are

dark green, shining, and evergreen; and its flowers are of a deep clear red, and very large. Each flower measures from three to four inches in diameter. It is said to be a Japanese species. Specimens of all these fine plants are now to be found in English gardens.

Passing over a little wooden bridge, I entered the third compartment of the nursery, which contained a collection of the common shrubs of the country. Along the banks of a ditch, through which the tide ebbs and flows, there is a row of the Olea fragrans. This is the famous Kwei-wha of the Chinese, and one of their most favourite flowers. It forms a good-sized bush, about as large as a lilac, and flowers in the autumn. There are three or four varieties, the main difference between them consisting in the colour of their blossoms. Those kinds which produce brownishyellow flowers are the finest and are most highly esteemed by the natives. The bushes are seen growing near all the villages in the north-eastern provinces of the empire, and are plentiful in gardens and nurseries. When they are in flower in the autumnal months, the air in their vicinity is literally loaded with the most delicious perfume. One tree is enough to scent a whole garden.

In England we know nothing of the beauty of this charming plant. But there is no other amongst all the beautiful productions of the East which more deserves our care, or that would more richly reward it. And I am quite sure that English gardeners have only to take the subject in hand to ensure the most complete success. Look at Camellias, Azaleas, Gar

denias, and a host of other things, all natives of China, and most of them much better grown, and brought to a greater state of perfection in England than amongst the Chinese themselves. And why should one of the most delightful plants of China be so neglected? All that is required is a span-roofed conservatory, where the bushes can be planted out in the bed, and liberally supplied with fresh air. During the summer months, when they are growing, they must be kept warm and moist, in order that the young wood may be well matured. In the autumn let them be kept rather dry, and give the house little or no artificial heat during winter. The plants will thus be subjected to a system of treatment similar to that which they receive in their native country. In the central and northern provinces of China, where the plant succeeds much better than it does in the warmer climate of the south, the winters are often extremely cold. The thermometer (Fahr.) is sometimes within a few degrees of zero. The summers are very hot in the months of June, July, and August, the thermometer ranges, during the day, between 80 and 100 degrees, and the weather is generally very wet in May and June.

The flowers of the Kwei-wha are a source of great profit to the Chinese cottager, as well as to the nurserymen, who produce them in large quantities for the market. There is a great demand for them in all the large towns. Ladies are fond of wearing wreaths of them in their hair; they are also dried and placed in ornamental jars, in the same way as we do rose-leaves in Europe, and they are used largely for

mixing with the finer kind of tea, in order to give it an agreeable perfume.

In all these gardens the Azalea is propagated readily and extensively. Layering is the common method employed, but grafting and striking from cuttings are also resorted to with success. During the hot summer months, both young and old plants are shaded from the mid-day sun. Most of these new kinds which I have been describing flower early, that is, in March and April: the section to which the A. variegata belongs flowers in May. After the flowering season has passed, the weather is generally moist, owing to a change in the monsoon. It is at this period that the plants grow most luxuriantly, and form their young wood, and this growth is completed and the wood ripened during the fine summer and autumn which follow. These northern Azaleas are exposed to severe colds during the winter. As I have already observed, the thermometer often sinks to within a few degrees of zero, and the weather is not unlike that which we have in England.

The Azalea is indigenous to China, and is found wild on every hill side, like the heath of our own country. About Hong-kong and Canton it is usually found in a wild state high up on the sides of the mountains, from 1000 to 2000 feet above the level of the sea. In latitude 25° north, in the province of Fokien, it is met with in less elevated situations, that is, from 500 to 1000 feet high; and when we reach Chusan, in latitude 30° north, we find it growing plentifully on the lower sides of all the hills, and

never, or at least rarely, at a high elevation.

We

thus see how plants, which are naturally fitted for the temperature of one part of the globe, can accommodate themselves to another by choosing a higher or lower situation on the hills.

Although this genus is thus found spreading itself over a vast tract of country, yet the northern parts just indicated are evidently those in which it is most at home. All who have been in the island of Chusan will remember how beautiful the hill sides and woods were in the months of April and May, when the Azaleas were in bloom. Every hill was a garden gay with flowers, planted and reared by the hand of Nature herself. Before I saw these hills I thought nothing could be more magnificent than those gorgeous displays of Azaleas at our flower-shows, and certainly, if we look merely at individual specimens, many of those reared by the skill of English gardeners surpass those which we find in a state of nature. But Nature plants and rears with no sparing hand; her colours are clear and brilliant, and she is not confined to greenhouses and flower-tents in which to display her productions, but scatters them with wild profusion over the sides of the hills. It is here that she is inimitable, and it is thus that she produces effects which, once seen, can never be forgotten.

Before leaving these Shanghae Azalea gardens, I must notice one plant which was in flower at the time I paid this visit to them. It was a specimen of Wistaria chinensis, in a dwarfed state, growing in a pot. The tree was evidently aged, from the size of its stem. It