426 MR. F. N. WILLIAMS ON TIIE 
Caryophyliacee of the Chinese Province of Sze-chuen. 
By PrEDERIC N. Wıruıays, PLS 
[Read Ist June, 1899.] 
THE provinces of Sze-chuen and Yun-nan form the westernmost 
divisions of China proper, and until somewhat recently little was 
known of their botany. The flora of Yun-nan has been assidu- 
ously taken in hand by M. Franchet in the course of working 
through the collections made by the Abbé Delavay in 1882 and 
following years; and he published the first instalment of the 
flora in 1886, after issuing a preliminary list the year before. 
Our knowledge of the flora of Sze-chuen is based on the distri- 
bution of a few collections of more recent date. Owing to the 
absence of material, the earlier parts of Mr. W. B. Hemsley’s 
* Index Flore Sinensis’ contain no reference to plants found to 
occur in Sze-chuen, and it is not till the order of Leguminose 
is reached that this province is mentioned by name, in giving the 
distribution of Lespedeza juncea. In all the orders which follow, 
the material afforded by such collections as came to hand was 
utilized with the issue of successive parts. 
The following are the collections which include plants from 
the province of Sze-chuen, and which require to be systemati- 
cally worked through in order to give any detailed account of 
the flora of this portion of China proper. 
Abbé Perny. A small collection in the Paris Museum Her- 
barium, not critically worked out, from the mountainous region 
of Sze-chuen, made in 1858. 
Abbé Delavay. Plants collected a little beyond the northern 
borders of Yun-nan, in 1882-1885. 
Lajos Lóczy. A collection made by the botanist attached to 
Count Béla Széchenyi’s expedition, organized to explore East 
Central Asia, and which included plants from Kan-su, Yun-nan, 
and Sze-chuen, collected in 1879-80, of which a descriptive list 
was issued by Prof. Kanitz in 1886. 
Abbé David. Plants collected by him during his stay at Mupin, 
and worked through by M. Franchet in the second volume of 
‘Plante Davidiane’ (1888). This work is published as a con- 
tribution to the flora of Eastern Tibet; but Mupin and the 
distriets explored are politieally within the province of Sze-chuen. 
G. N. Potanin. Collected plants in 1885, in Kan-su and 
