The roots, or rather the creeping stem of the Lien, wha, of the Chinese, (_Nelumbium speciosum_,) are seen carried about for sale in the streets of Macao and Canton, as well as in large quantities in the bazaars. Although highly esteemed by the Chinese, I do not admire it as an esculent vegetable, being of a soft, pappy, and tasteless flavour; the only gratification derived from it is found in the growth of the plant and elegance of its blossom. According to Dr. Abel, the Chinese cultivate and prize it above all other plants. “This splendid flower,” he says, “celebrated for its beauty by the Chinese poets, and ranked for its virtues among the plants which, according to Chinese theology, enter into the beverage of immortality, flourished in the greatest vigour in the gardens of Tung, chow. Its tulip-like blossoms of many petals, tinted with the most delicate pink, hung over its fan-like leaves, floated on the surface of the water, or rising on long footstalks, of unequal height, bent them into elegant curves, and shaded with graceful festoons the plants beneath. Near Yuen-Ming-Yuen, and under the walls of Pekin,” continues Dr. Abel, “I saw it covering, with pink and yellow blossoms, large tracts of land, and could sympathise with the enthusiasm of the Chinese bards, who have sung of the delight of moonlight excursions on rivers, covered with the flowering Lien, wha. Its seeds, in size and form, like a small acorn without its cup, are eaten green, or dried as nuts, and are often preserved as sweetmeats; they have a nut-like flower. Its roots, sometimes as thick as the arm, of a pale green without, and whitish within, in a raw state, are eaten as fruit, being juicy, and of a sweetish and refreshing flavour, and when boiled are served as vegetables. The leaves are said to possess a strengthening quality; the seed vessel to cure the colic, to facilitate parturition, and to counteract the effects of poison.”[30] The _Arachis hypogæa_, or ground nuts, are sold in great abundance in the bazaars, and about the streets of Macao and Canton, and are much eaten by the Chinese, who also extract an oil from the seeds for a variety of purposes. Mr. Beale presented me with drawings by a Chinese artist, of the plants from which the pith, used in the manufacture of that kind of paper known to Europeans under the denomination of _rice-paper_, and that from which the fibre used in the manufacture of the _grass-cloth_ is procured. I suspect that the fibre used for the Manilla senimaya, or grass-cloth, is not produced from the _Musa textilis_, as is commonly supposed, which point has not, although often asserted by writers, been actually decided; it is more probably produced from a plant similar to that used by the Chinese, which is _Corchorus_, probably _capsularis_. The following engraving is from the Chinese drawing.