The apples of China are dry and insipid ; the plums, quinces and apricots afford better varieties, and two pears, the White and Strawberry, are said to be equal to any western varieties. The fruit of the south is the orange, the most delicious species being the chu-shakin or mandarin orange. The olives are inferior ; dates were formerly abundant, but are now but little cultivated. Four of the indigenous fruits are the whampe [cookia] a grape in size, a gooseberry in taste ; the loquat, or pebo [eriobotrya], a kind of medlar: and the lichi, a strawberry in size and shape, the tough red skin enclosing a sweet, watery pulp of a whitish color surrounding a hard seed. The pomegranate is cultivated chiefly for its flowers ; the guava and the rose apple are grown to make jellies: bread-fruit, almonds, mangoes, bananas, the persimmon and the carambola, or gooseberry-tree, are also cultivated. A pleasant sweetmeat like cranberry is made from the seeds of the arbutus [myrica]. The citron is valued more for its fragrance than its taste, and the thick rind is cut into strips while growing, each strip becoming a roundish end like a finger, whence the name Fun shao, or Buddha hand.

Grapes are abundant and cheap, and in northern China are kept through the winter by carefully regulating the temperature of the fruit; a system akin to our "cold storage," which is practically new with us.

(*) The flowers grown in pots on the boats, and those usually-worn by boat-women in their hair, all assist in imparting a pleasing aspect to the river at Funchau. The jasmine is the favorite flower for the hair. The cypress vine is found trained about the homes of even the poorest people.