PLANTS DAVIDIANiE, 91 



the minimum winter temperature oscillates between 20° and 10° 

 Fahr. It is, however, sometimes 15° lower, and in Mongolia cold 

 of 25° below zero is not uncommon. 



"While therefore no plants from warm countries can survive the 

 Peking winter, many tropical annual species can be cultivated far 

 to the north. Bamboos, for instance, which thrive on all the 

 mountains of South China, are not found in a wild state north of 

 the Yellow Eiver ; and, on the otber hand, rice, sesame, cotton, 

 sweet potatoes, &c., are successfully grown up to the borders 

 of Manchuria. Again, the two or three (doubtless introduced) 

 varieties of the grape-vine, which are cultivated near Peking, have 

 to be completely covered with earth every winter. 



The climate of the provinces south of the Yangtsze Eiver is 

 subtropical, with frequent rains throughout the year, less however, 

 in winter than in summer. Vegetation therefore is much more 

 luxuriant than in the north, but without being varied. Abbe 

 David alludes to the close connection between the flora of Kiangsi, 

 Kiangnan and Chekiang and that of Japan, a fact which has been 

 already established, while the relations of the Southern provinces 

 to Cochin China and India have yet to be worked out. 



One of the greatest evils with which China has now to contend 

 is the result of the forest devastation which has gone on for 

 centuries, either for the purpose of clearing ground for agriculture 

 or for the sake of the timber. Abbe David further suggests 

 that, as the tiger and the leopard once roamed through the 

 forests, human life could not have been safe in their neigh- 

 bourhood, especially for people who kept but few cattle ; and 

 that the destruction of the haunts of these wild beasts may 

 have been resorted to as a means of exterminating the pests. 

 At all events the timber has practically disappeared from the 

 mountains and hills of China, and Abbe David says that it is only 

 on almost inaccessible slopes that remains of old forests are to be 

 found. It must have been only from inadvertence that he has 

 omitted to mention the neighbourhood of Buddhist monasteries 

 and temples as among the few places where the native tree vegeta- 

 tion of China is still preserved. This fact has been j)ointed out by 

 Dr. Hance in more than one place in this Journal,* and although 

 more especially referring to the Southern provinces, his obser- 

 vations are none the less true regarding other parts of China 

 further north, as the writer of this notice is able to testify. 



The Abbe David's preface contains a long and highly in- 

 teresting account of Moupine, a small quasi-independent state 

 of Eastern Thibet, where this zealous naturalist spent nine 

 months and whence came his most remarkable zoological novelties. 

 The word "Moupine," according to Abbe David, signifies "wooded 

 plain," a name which, he adds, must have been given ironically, as 

 the whole district so bristles with mountain peaks that it must 

 require an effort of imagination for the inhabitants to realize what 

 a iDlain means. In this range there are several snow-capped 



* Journ. Bot. 1870, pp. 274, 275 ; 1878, pp. 6, 7, 8. 



