PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



1 3 6th meeting 



The 136th regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington 

 was held in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club at 8 p. m., Tuesday, 

 May 6, 1919, forty-three members and two guests being present. The 

 program consisted of the folloAving papers: 



Agricultural explorations of Frank N. Meyer (with lantern) : David G. 

 Fairchild. The speaker gave a brief account of the life and work of Mr. 

 Meyer, illustrating his talk by lantern slides made from pictures taken by 

 the explorer in China and other parts of Asia. Meyer was a Hollander by 

 birth and spent his childhood among the gardens of Amsterdam, rising 

 through his own talents to be the assistant of Hugo de Vries. His 

 passion for travel took him on foot across the Alps and into Italy to 

 see the orange groves and vineyards of the Mediterranean and later led 

 him to explore America and northern Mexico on foot. His first expe- 

 dition in the years 1905-8 was into North China, Manchuria, and 

 northern Korea; his second, in 1909-11, through the Caucasus, Russian 

 Turkestan, Chinese Turkestan, and Siberia; his third, in 191 2-15, 

 through northwestern China into the Kansu Province to the borders 

 of Tibet, and his last expedition in search of plants began in 191 6 when 

 he went in quest of the wild pear forests in the region of Jehol, north 

 of Peking, and the region around Ichang. He was caught at Ichang 

 by the revolution and for many months was unable to escape. The 

 confinement and uncertainty with regard to the great war, together 

 with an attack of illness, had by this time combined to bring on a re- 

 currence of a former attack of what amounted to nervous prostration, 

 and before he could reach the encouraging companionship of people 

 of his own class he was drowned in the Yangtze River near the town of 

 Wu Hu, thirty miles north of Nanking. He has sent in hundreds of 

 shipments of living cuttings and thousands of sacks filled with seeds 

 of the useful plants of the countries through which he traveled, which 

 are growing successfully in American fields and orchards, and has ren- 

 dered great service to our horticulture by showing us what the Chinese 

 have done to improve their native fruits. 



Agrictiltural explorations in Guatemala (with lantern) : W11.SON 

 PoPENOE The avocado is being planted commercially in California 



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