A correspondent of the London Gardener's Chronicle says : "I noticed that nearly every garden contained a few specimens of the Chusan Palm, Chamaerops Fortunei, which the natives cultivate for the purpose of supplying themselves with fibre obtained from the sheaths of the leaves, to fabricate waterproof capes. Paul-ownia imperialis, with its very large leaves, was a conspicuous object in one locality, although it did not attain to more than about I 5 feet in height.

With the exception of some healthy young plantations of Cunninghamia sinensis, the Conifer which supplies China Fir for building purposes, I noticed scarcely any tree planting operations. This is different to the case in the West River districts, where the people devote considerable care to the rearing of Pinus sinensis. The neglect of tree planting in one place, and the fostering of it in the other, is probably accounted for by the facilities of getting the wood to market, which is afforded by the splendid West River in the latter case, while in the former there is no river nearer than 8 or 9 miles to the nearest part of the mountains".