SPICILEGIA FLOR^ SINENSIS. 7 



Eich as the Chinese Flora undoubtedly still is, it is imx^ossible 

 not to believe that the useless and lamentable destruction of the 

 forests throughout the Empire, which has attracted the attention 

 of all observers,''' must have caused the total extinction or excessive 

 rarity of many plants. And, indeed, it seems far from improbable 

 that the diastrous and often -recurring inundations, which are one 

 of the most terrible scourges of the Middle Kingdom, are in part 

 due to this unreflecting devastation.! It may be hoped that, as 



* " This nakedness appenrs to be a universal characteristic of mountain 

 scenery in China, but it is not the fault of the soil or the climate, for wherever 

 the little pines are suffered to rise they show a vigorous growth. The cause of 

 this universal deficiency in forests seems to be the frequency of rebellions that 

 have swept to and fro over the whole Empire like a desolating scourge. In a 

 few days the Chinese can rebuild their low mud-liouses, but Nature requires 

 years of continued peace to cover her mountains with forests, and rebellion has 

 followed rebellion too quickly for her to accomplish the ever-recurring task ; 

 and, besides, the people do not care to labour much when there is a jDrobability 

 that outlaws will profit by their industry. Yet it is true that they do raise some 

 trees in a few places; but over the wide area that I have travelled not a tenth 

 part of the soil is thus improved that might be, and then the trees are generally 

 cut down before they attain any size ; and this in districts whose population is 

 numbered by the hundred thousand, and nearly all living in houses whose walls 

 are of mud, and their rafters and floors the only wood they contain. The old 

 trees occasionally seen in groves around the Buddhist temples, that only owe 

 their preservation to the superstition of the destroyers, show what splendid timber 

 thousands of hill-sides m China might yield." (Bickmore, ' Journ. N. Ch. Br. of 

 Asiat. Soc' n.s. iv. 1). — Hance, in ' Journ. Linn, Soc.,' xi, 455. 



" On se sent malheureux de voir ia rapidite avec laquelle progresse la 

 destruction de ces forets primitives, dont il ne reste plus que des lambeaux 

 dans toute la Chine, et qui ne seront jamais plus remplacees. Avec les grands 

 arbres desparaissent une multitude d'arbustes et d'autres plantes qui ne peurent 

 se propager qu'a leur ombre," (David, ' Journ. de mon, 3e Voy, dans i'Emp, 

 Chinois,' i. 188), 



t The writer is aware that the generally received opinion that the destruction 

 of forests reduces the rainfall of a country has been characterised as a popular 

 fallacy by the late Dr. 0. Peschel (' Neue Probleme d. Vergleich. Erdkunde,' Leipz, 

 1870) ; but a very competent critic, — Mr. Keith Johnston, jun., — in a review of 

 the book ('Academy,' 1st June, 1871, p. 287) remarks on this assertion, " This 

 conclusion however appears to be a hasty one; and reliable data are yet required 

 to shoAV that forests, by maintaining a lower or more equal temperature, over the 

 lands in which they grow, do not tend to condense the vapours of the rain- 

 bringing winds over these districts, and thus increase their rainfall ; and that, 

 conversely, when the forests, and with them the condensing cause, are removed, 

 the more easily heated land allows that vapour to pass which it previously had 

 drawn down upon itself as rain." Humboldt remarks: — " La connaissance de 

 I'etendue des forets, comparee a la surface nue ou oouverte d'herbes et de gra- 

 rainees, est un des elements numeriques les plus interessants et les plus negliges 

 de la climatologie d'un pays. La rarete ou I'absence des forets augmente a la 

 fois la temperature et la secheresse de I'air, et cette secheresse, en diminuant 

 I'etendue des nappes d'eau evaporantes et la force de la vegetation du gazon, 

 reagit sur la chaleur du climat local." ('Asie Centrale,' iii. 199). Schouw, 

 whilst fully admitting the important climatic influence of forests in the torrid 

 zone, was of opinion that in temperate climates this is, " if not totally deniable, 

 but very slight." (' The Earth, Plants and Man,' 12:2). His observations on 

 the subject are well worth attention. The whole question has been most lucidly 

 and fully discussed by an illustrious French savant, M. Becquerel, in a special 

 work, 'Des Climats, et de I'influence qu'exercent les sols boises et non boises' 

 (Paris, 1H53) ; and the reader's attention may be especially directed to the 

 candid and admirable exposition in the 10th chapter, *' Des effets du deboise- 

 ment." 



