There Are
The Two Sorts Of Seeds Mentioned By Father Le Compte, In His Description
Of Tea; And What Be
Describes as a third sort, under the name of
slymie pease, consists merely of the young flower-buds, not yet
Open.
The seed vessels of the tea tree are three-capsular, each capsule
containing one nut or seed; and though often two or one of these only
come to perfection, yet the vestiges of the rest may easily be
discerned. It grows naturally in a dry gravelly soil on the sides of
hills, without any cultivation, in several places of this island.
[Footnote 331: Fo-kien is almost certainly here meant - E.]
Le Compte is mistaken in saying that the Chinese are ignorant of the art
of grafting; for I nave seen many of his paradoxical tallow-trees
ingrafted here, besides trees of other sorts. When they ingraft, they do
not slit the stock as we do, but slice off the outside of the stock, to
which they apply the graft, which is cut sloping on one side, to
correspond with the slice on the stock, bringing the bark of the slice
up on the outside of the graft, after which the whole is covered up with
mud and straw, exactly as we do. The commentator on Magalhen seems
doubtful as to the length of the Chinese che or cubit. At this island
they have two sorts, one measuring thirteen inches and seven-tenths
English, which, is commonly used by merchants; the other is only eleven
inches, being used by carpenters, and also in geographical measures.
Though Father Martini is censured by Magalhen for spelling a great many
Chinese words with ng, which the Portuguese and others express with
in, yet his way is more agreeable to our English pronunciation and
orthography; only the g may be left out in Pekin, Nankin, and some
others.
Having made enquiry about what is mentioned by Father Martini of sowing
their fields at Van-cheu with oyster-shells, to make new ones grow,
I was told, that after they have taken out the oysters, they sprinkle
the empty shells with urine, and throw them into the water, by which
means there grow new oysters on the old shells.[332] Martini says he
could never find a Latin name for the Tula Mogorin of the Portuguese;
but I am sure it is the same with the Syringa arabica, flore pleno
albo, of Parkinson. Martini also says that the kieu-yeu, or
tallow-tree, bears a white flower, like that of the cherry-tree: But all
that I have seen here bear spikes of small yellow flowers, like the
julus of the Salix. The bean-broth, or mandarin-broth, so frequently
mentioned in the Dutch embassy, and by other authors, is only an
emulsion made of the seeds of sesamum with hot water.
[Footnote 332: This strange story may possibly be thus explained. At
certain seasons, numerous minute oysters may be seen sticking to the
shells of the old ones; and the Chinese may have thrown the emptied
shells into the sea, in the highly probable expectation of these minute
oysters continuing to live and grow.
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