Opium Pipe.
CHAP. XIII.
SHANGHAE IN 1844.—ITS GARDENS AND PLANTS.—START FOR THE HILLS IN THE INTERIOR.—CANALS AND BRIDGES.—ADVENTURE WITH MY PONY.—THE "TEIN-CHING," OR BLUE DYE, FOUND.—HILLS AND THEIR VEGETATION DESCRIBED.—THE SURPRISE OF THE NATIVES ON SEEING A FOREIGNER.—THEIR CURIOSITY AND HONESTY!—PLANTS SENT TO ENGLAND.—ANOTHER JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.—SOME LARGE NORTHERN CITIES NOTICED.—A MIDNIGHT VISIT FROM THIEVES.—THE FAR-FAMED CITY OF SOO-CHOW-FOO VISITED.—A DESCRIPTION OF IT.—NEW PLANTS FOUND.—CENTRAL POSITION OF SOO-CHOW AS A PLACE OF TRADE.—BATHS FOR THE MILLION.—RETURN TO SHANGHAE.
I again visited Shanghae on the 18th of April, 1844, and spent two or three weeks there at different times. My principal object was to see all the plants in the different northern districts as they came into flower, and it was therefore necessary that I should stay as short a time as possible in each place. I have mentioned that I purchased a collection of Tree Pæonies during my first visit to Shanghae in the winter of 1843, which were said to be very splendid things, and entirely different in colour from any plants of the kind which were known in England. I had of course, at that time, no opportunity of seeing their flowers, and was now, therefore, particularly anxious to get some which were in bloom, and had intended to send my old friend back again to Soo-chow for another collection, stipulating, however, that the plants should this time have blooms upon them. One morning, however, as I was going out into the country, a short distance from Shanghae, I was surprised at meeting a garden labourer with a load of Moutans all in full flower, which he was taking towards the city for sale. The flowers were very large and fine, and the colours were dark purples, lilacs, and deep reds, kinds of which the very existence had been always doubted in England, and which are never seen even at Canton. Two English gentlemen who were excellent Chinese scholars, being with me at the time, we soon found out the name of the Moutan district; and from the state of the roots in the man's basket, I was quite certain that the plants had not been more than an hour or two out of the ground, and that consequently the place where they were grown could not be more than six or eight miles from Shanghae, a surmise which I afterwards found to be perfectly correct. This was doubtless the place where my nursery friend had procured his plants in the previous autumn, and where he would have gone again had I not been lucky enough to find that I could easily go there myself. Indeed, I afterwards discovered that there was no Moutan country in the vicinity of Soo-chow, having met a man from that place in the Shanghae district, where he had come for the express purpose of buying Tree Pæonies. I now went into the Moutan district daily during the time the different plants were coming into bloom, and secured some most striking and beautiful kinds for the Horticultural Society.
Several very distinct and beautiful Azaleas were added to my collections at Shanghae, as well as many other plants of an ornamental character which have not yet been described. I fully expect that many of these will prove hardy enough to thrive in the open air in England, and that others will make excellent plants for the greenhouse.