The _Cycas revoluta_ (Fung, maee, cho, of the Chinese) was planted in pots, and from being so generally seen about the dwellings of the people, I should consider was a favourite with them; a number of dwarf elms, bamboos, and other trees, with a number of varieties of _Hibiscus_, _Althæa_, were Malva, were all these _celebrated gardens_ contained. The principal topics of conversation, as the space in front of the factories is traversed over and over again by the foreigners, are opium, Areka-nut, (erroneously called betel-nut,) pepper, rattans, and cotton. The different reports that have been set in motion, (gaining as they proceed from mouth to mouth during the day,) are discussed early in the morning: true, or untrue, is immaterial; every body credits them, and they serve _pour passer le temps_. If one person meets another, a cool bow of acknowledgment is made, and he passes on his way; or he may be doomed to run the gauntlet, if any important event has been started, with every one he meets, at the corner of every hong, at the risk of being scorched by the sun, or, if taken under shelter, exposed to a chilling blast: as the day advances, he will find the tale increased to such an extent, that the person who heard it in the morning would hardly recognize the bantling by the evening: the three black crows is a mere trifle to some of their inventions: one relates mutinies happening on board an Indiaman, of the existence of which even the commander was ignorant: a slight illness of a lady at Macao, by the time it reaches her husband at Canton, by passing from individual to individual, becomes a dangerous state, if not her actual decease; and at the time the intelligence is communicated to her afflicted husband, she is probably attending one of the gay evening conversational parties at Macao, in which one derives exceeding enjoyment, hearing the ladies “discourse most eloquent music,” and mildly pass over the personal defects or mental faults of each other. One may very naturally therefore ask, “if anything has been invented this morning?” and if accuracy is requisite, how the news arrived, whose authority, &c.