THE FLORA OF AMOORLA.ND. 127 



himself, describing as new all that cannot be readily identified, but a 

 complete enumeration of all the species known to grow in the country, 

 as far as could be made out from the materials deposited at St. Peters- 

 burgh by different collectors, or from the few works already published ; 

 the whole carefully compared, when possible, with specimens from ad- 

 joining countries, and followed by general essays on the physical aspect, 

 climate, and vegetation of the territory, chiefly drawn up from personal 

 observation and data collected during a two years' residence there. 



M. Charles John Maximo wicz* was in July, 1854, botanical collector 

 to the Petersburgh Botanical Garden, on board the frigate Diana, 

 which, in the course of a scientific voyage round the world, was then 

 lying in the Bay of Castries, off the coast of Mantchuria, near the lower 

 Amur. In consequence of the outbreak of the war with England, he 

 there left her, and remained in the Amur district till the autumn of 1856, 

 spending the long winters at Mariinsk, on the river, 300 versts (225 

 miles), above its mouth, but separated from the Bay of Castries only by a 

 very narrow chain of hills. His explorations in 1854 were chiefly along 

 the coast between Castries and Nicholaefsk, at the mouth of the river. 

 In the summer of 1855 he ascended the Lower Amur and its southern 

 affluent, the Ussuri, to the mouth of the ISor, in lat. 47°. In 1856, he was 

 detained late at Mariinsk by the arrangements preparatory to an antici- 

 pated attack from the English ; and the season was far advanced when 

 he ascended the whole length of the river on his return to St. Peters- 

 burgh. His own collections are therefore nearly limited to the plants of 

 the Lower Amur and Ussuri; but his enumeration includes those gathered 

 by M. Maack, traveller to the Bussian Geographical Society, who, in the 

 spring and early summer of 1855, descended the river from its commence- 

 ment to its mouth, and by Dr. L. v. Schrenck, traveller to the Imperial' 

 Academy of Sciences, who ascended it early in the following summer. 

 Use has also been, made of the smaller and more local collections of M. 

 de Turczaninoff, Dr. Weyrich, and M. C. von Detmar. 



The basin of the Amur, which appears to have received the name of 

 Amurland, forming hitherto part of Northern Mantchuria, lies to the 

 north of the high snowy mountain range of Shan-alin (lat. about 42°). 

 The river commences by the junction of the Schilka and the Argun, in 

 lat. 53°, at the point where they enter the mountain chain bounding the 

 high table-land of their upper course ; and after pursuing its way for some 

 time through a still elevated hilly land, and taking a more southerly di- 

 rection, it enters, at the mouth of the Dreja, into a broad plain, traversed 

 near to the southern bend of the river, in lat. 47° 30', by the rugged 

 transverse ridge of the Bureja mountains. The Amur now turns again 

 towards the north-east and north, rrW along the foot of a mountain 

 chain parallel to the coast, until by a sudden turn to the east it breaks 

 through the hills, and empties itself into the straits of Tartary in lat. 

 53°. The whole basin, from the Chingan mountains on the west to the 



* Cz pronounced like ch in church. 



