654 Forestry Quarterly. 



In the Alpine creeping forest type a specific pine, Piniis pumila 

 is found. 



Among the trees most frequently planted in northern China we 

 find the Mulberry as food for silkworms. Further south the 

 bamboo is the principal cultivated "forest crop." Other trees 

 which might be mentioned are Dryandra cordata a favorite for 

 ornamental use and prized for its hardwood and the oil from its 

 seed; Stillingia sebifera (Tallow tree); Rhus vernicifera (Var- 

 nish tree), the important wood-oil tree, Aleurites cordata; and 

 the Vegetable Wax tree, Fraxinus chinensis. 



Forest Areas and Forestry. 



Of actual forest areas very little is known. An attempt has 

 been made to indicate on the accompanying map in merely rough 

 approximation the location of existing forests, of which there is, 

 indeed, a very small proportion. In many parts there is such a 

 dearth of fuel that even grass roots are dug, and the fruit trees 

 and roadside trees are not safe from depredations for their wood. 



The forest still existing is far up on the headwaters of rivers 

 and in quite out-of-the-way places ; and the forest districts are 

 inhabited by a different people from the Chinese proper. The 

 largest is probably that in southern Hunan, where the people are 

 called ''Miaotze," and the Chinese call them "wild people" 

 although the testimony of missionaries who have traveled through 

 the district is to the effect that they are a rather peaceful and 

 pleasant people. However, the Chinese still have great tales to 

 tell of the wildness of this people, and it may be on account of 

 that that this forest is still preserved. For these wild people have 

 a crude system of forestry. It is largely based on religious 

 superstition,* as they think that the wood gods become greatly 

 angered by the cutting down of trees, and the way to appease them 

 is to replant. Although this basis may be doubtful, it is a fact 

 that a more or less clear cutting by groups and aiding natural re- 

 production by planting is practiced ; this being about the only case 

 of forestry development in a country where on all sides forest de- 

 struction has been absolute. 



In a patch of forest in Kansu Province there is also a rough 



*Mayr reports, that the small remnants of forests, now and then found 

 in the distant mountains are as a rule of the nature of cloister groves 

 preserved by the Buddhist hermits. 



