He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common red beet, the carrot, fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground, at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato. Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little success. Several kinds of yams (_Dioscoreæ_) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (_Vicia faba_), several species of French beans (_Phascolus_), and peas (_Pisun sativum_), were commonly cultivated; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper (_Capsicum_), introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the _Acorus_, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (_Amomum miōga_); the _Mentha piperita_; the _Alcea rosea_ and _Malva Mauritiana_, cultivated for their flowers; the _Celastrus alatus_, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady’s door, is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo and the box, also the ivy; the China-root (_Smilax China_); wild figs, with small fruit like plums (_Fiscus pumila_ and _erecta_); the pepper bush (_Figara peperita_); a species of madder (_Rubia cordata_), and several species of the _Pologonum_, used for dyeing. Also, two species of nettles, the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (_Brassica orientalis_), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by its seeds, presented through the spring a beautiful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the _Sesamum orientale_ and the mustard seed. Solid oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree (_Rhus vernix_), and from those of the _Rhus succedanea_, the camphor-tree, the _Melea azedarach_, and the _Camellia sasankwa_.[46] In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [_mogusa_], spoken of hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the meal of a species of bean is employed.