74 OUTLINE OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



Japanese genera were Camellia, Deutzia, Aucuba, Skimmea and 



Enkianthus. 



The recent discoveries of palaentologists in Mongolia, pointing 

 to that region as the original home of the ancestors of most of the 

 large mammalia of both hemispheres, suggest that possibly some- 

 where in central Asia was also the region from which were derived 

 the ancestors of all the boreal floras. 



Eastern Asia 



The temperate regions of eastern Asia are comprised in the 

 Chinese Empire, Corea, and Japan. 



As might be inferred from its vast extent China possesses a very 

 extensive and varied flora. The southern portion lies within the 

 tropics, and the flora is Indo-Malayan in character, like that of the 

 adjacent Himalayan and Burmese regions. 



The mountains of the south and west, however, have a very rich 

 flora of a more temperate character, being part of the Himalayan- 

 Tibetan region. It is these mountain regions from which have 

 come so many beautiful Chinese plants which adorn our gardens. 



China, being such an ancient and densely populated country, 

 has little to offer the botanist except in the more remote regions. 

 Most of the land has been so long closely cultivated that it is quite 

 impossible to find any trace of the original vegetation. More- 

 over the mountains have been stripped of their forests, resulting 

 in extensive denudation, so that the student of the indigenous 

 Chinese flora must seek the remote, and thinly settled mountain 

 regions of the south and west. 



In the valley of the Yangstse Kiang, the upper forest is said 

 to be composed largely of conifers. At 6000 feet elevation there 

 are firs, spruces, larch, not unlike the European forests at similar 

 altitudes, but composed of different species. Below is a mixed 

 forest of conifers and deciduous trees similar to that in northern 

 Japan and the eastern United States. The common European 

 genera are all present; but with these are many types absent 

 from Europe, but represented in North America. Such char- 

 acteristic American trees as the sweet gum (Liquidambar), 

 tupelo (Nyssa), tulip-tree (Liriodendron), Magnolia, Catalpa 

 and others, have Chinese representatives, and there are many 



