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[Page 2]
The Chinese are much given to Horticulture & are successful cultivaters of abundance of Beautiful Flowers, if Ld Amherst takes out the Plant Cabbin offered to his Lordship at Kew, I advise the filling of it with the Common Roses & Lilys & other of the most common & most elegant Plants of our Flower Gardens such as may be Procured at Portsmouth most of these will prove new to the Chinese & if Left at Canton with the Hong merchants who cultivate Gardens at an immense Expence, will ensure a Return of their best garden Plants for the purpose of filling the Plant Cabbin in the Return home
The Gardener who knows well all the Chinese Plants Cultivated at Kew will at once hit upon such as he finds new in the Gardens of the Hong Merchants in the [indecipherable] Garden near the Town of Canton among those which are the most wanted are the many varieties of the Azalea indica & those of the Moutan or Peonia pietersens arborea, different from those known in Europe, we are told of yellow & of Blue Moutans & have seen drawings of them but whether these are fictions or Realities is not quite certain
On going on board the boats that will take you on your Journey after having Passd the Last Carrying Place, it will be expedient to Prepare Tubs or Pots for bringing such Living Plants as may be deemed Curious to Canton for the furniture of the Plant Cabbin, these, with such as can be procurd from the Gardens will make an ample cargo & as we have