1919] WILSON, PHYTOGEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF KOREA 33 



extreme north in the valleys of the Yalu and Tumen rivers it falls as low 

 as twenty below zero Fahrenlieit — that is 52° F. of frost; round Keijyo 

 or Seoul, the capital of Korea, the rivers freeze solid or nearly so and in 

 winter all vehicular traffic crosses the ice where bridges are not available. 

 Korea is a very mountainous country; there are no plateaus nor plains 

 worthy of the name and the only flat land is confined to narrow valleys and 

 estuaries of the rivers. The mean height of the broken country is from 

 300 to 600 m. and that of the mountains from 1000 to 1800 m.; the highest 

 peak is Paiktu-san 2700 m. but there are many about 2000 m. high. Agri- 

 culture is the staple industry of the people and the whole of the most fertile 

 soils in the most accessible and climatically best parts of the country have 

 been brought under cultivation. Since the winters are very cold much fuel 

 is necessary and unfortunately coal is found in one or two places only and 

 the people are almost entirely dependent upon wood for fuel. These two 

 facts, and more especially the absence of coal, have been mainly responsible 

 for the disappearance of the forests from the greater part of the peninsula. 

 It is true that in the extreme north, which is very difficult of access and the 

 population very sparse, magnificent forests of great extent remain and on 

 mountains, like the Diamond Mts. where Buddhist monks have managed 

 to maintain their influence and round royal tombs the vegetation has been 

 very little disturbed, but over fully two-thirds of the whole country the 

 forests have been destroyed and where no cultivation is to-day attempted 

 coarse grasses, shrubs and scrub Pine are all that remain. These constitute 

 the chief fuel supply of the country. The scrub Pine is Pinus densiflora S. 

 & Z. and this has been extensively planted both under the old Korean 

 regime and by the present Japanese government and to the casual observer 

 appears to be almost the only tree in the country. It is hacked and maimed 

 annually to supply fuel yet it manages to maintain itself under the most 

 adverse conditions, in the poorest of soils and on the barest of rocks; where 

 left alone it develops into tall, handsome trees. From the railway which 

 traverses the country from soutlieast to northwest the impression left on 

 the minds of nearly all travellers is of treeless, scrub and grass cl^d hills, 

 bare rocks, low scrub Pine scattered over mountain-slopes with patches of 

 cultivation in the valleys. In winter when the crops are harvested and 

 the grass is shorn and brown, the whole countryside looks cold, drab and 

 cheerless. However, a more intimate acquaintance, a closer study, will 

 show that, in spite of the naked appearance in winter and the marked 

 absence of trees from accessible areas and routes, Korea can really boast a 

 fairly extensive flora comparatively rich in trees, shrubs, and in herbs having 

 conspicuous and beautiful flowers. Compared with that of its neighbours, 

 China and Japan, the flora of Korea is much less rich and varied, yet in 

 individuals of striking merit it has many claims, and these none the less 

 strong for remaining virtually unknown until quite recently. For, although 

 small collections have been made from time to time since 1854, when Baron 

 Alexander Schlippenbach gathered the first plants in Korea, no real investi- 

 gation of the flora had been undertaken prior to the country's annexation 



