Page:A Residence Among the Chinese.djvu/225

Chap. X. than 23,892 tea-plants, upwards of 300 chesnut-trees, and a large quantity of other things of great value in India, now growing on the Himalayas, were the results of this year's labours. The rice-paper plant (Aralia papyrifera) presented to me by J. C. Bowring, Esq., of Hongkong, was also introduced to India, and is now a remarkable object of great interest in the Calcutta gardens.

When the various consignments had been despatched, I went up to Canton for a few days before proceeding again to the north, in order if possible to get some reliable information as to the mode of scenting tea, which is only understood and practised at this port with teas destined for the foreign markets. I had been making inquiries for some time past, both of foreigners and Chinese, about this curious process carried on so extensively at Canton; but the answers and descriptions I received to my questions were so unsatisfactory, that I gave up all hopes of understanding the process until I had an opportunity of seeing and judging for myself. When I reached Canton I was informed the whole process might be seen any day at that season in full operation in a tea-factory on the island of Honan. Messrs. Walkinshaw and Thorburn, two gentlemen well acquainted with the various kinds of teas sent annually to Europe and America, consented to accompany me to this factory, and we took with us the Chinese merchant to whom the place belonged. I was thus placed in a most favourable condition for obtaining a