Sept. 29.—We have read somewhere that one of the first "Big Bosses" to come to Shanghai had previously been connected with the East India Company. He was a surgeon on a sailing ship, and a medical man in those days must have had an extensive knowledge of herbs and their medicinal properties. One of his successors built the first railway in China, which ran for w miles into the country. Later, the same firm brought a touch of Lancashire into the city, but, as far as we know, the clogs and shawls were not introduced. Since those days, much water has passed down the Soochow Creek: it is perhaps dirtier now than it was in the "good old days" but we can still call it water. although some people may disagree with us. We were reminded of that first "Big Boss" when we were enjoying a walk around a large garden on the south side of Hungiao Road today. We know that the garden did not exist in his days, nor did it exist for many years after he had shaken the dust of Shanghai from his heels; but the knowledge of plant life that he must have had has been passed down to the present day "Big Boss" of the firm. We saw many plants that we had last seen in the "old country" and many beautiful colour schemes formed by the arrangement of trees which one does not meet with everywhere. It is much more difficult to plant trees for colour effect than to arrange a colour scheme in a flower border. We saw, a batch of cotton growing in one part of the garden, probably this had been planted to keep the ground under cultivation but, in our imagination, we saw a link with those first factories introduced long years ago. We also saw a fine collection of Berberis and we admit that a pang of jealousy shot through us when we saw the collection; but we were somewhat comforted by the thought that a "Big Boss" of a rival firm would have been still more envious had he seen the plants. As we proceeded along the drive some cryptomeria trees attracted our attention. This ornamental evergreen is a handsome tree despite its faults and one of those we saw was partially hiding a beautiful large maple: we are glad that we have not "to decide which of the two to retain: As the drive entered the carriage turn on the east side of.fhe house we noticed a magnificent Paulownia tree. This native of Central
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.