Note 53 — Chapter XXXVI · LUCHOW TO CHUNG-KING FU

Among the trees and plants behind Peh-Shih, which were interesting as growing in one locality, were: the orange, pommeloe, pomegranate, apricot, peach, apple, pear, plum, persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana), loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica), date-plum (Diospyros Kaki), the Chinese date tree (Rhamnus Theezans), walnut, Spanish chestnuts, the Ficus religiosa, palms, bamboos, cypresses, pines, the “varnish tree” (Rhus-vernicifera), the Tung oil tree (Aleurites cordata), mulberry, oak, the Cudrania triloba, much used for feeding young silkworms, a hibiscus, plane, the Sterculia platinifolia, the Paulonia Imperialis, three varieties of soap trees (Acacia negata, Gymnocladus Sinensis, and Gleditschia Sinensis), the tallow tree, and very many others, my specimens of which were so destroyed by damp as to render subsequent botanical identification impossible. Hemp was considerably grown, and of two economic shrubs, both new to me, there were several patches, the Boehmeria nivea, from the fibre of which grass cloth is manufactured, and the Fatsia papyrifera, from the pith of which rice paper is made.