NEW YORJ^ 



BOTANICAJ 



GAKDEN 



A NATURALIST IN WESTERN 

 CHINA 



CHAPTER I 



THE FLORA OF WESTERN CHINA 



A Brief Account of the Richest Temperate Flora 

 IN THE World 



IN previous chapters the wildly mountainous character of 

 Western China has been emphasized. Such a region, afford- 

 ing, as it does, altitudinal extremes, a great diversity in 

 climate, and a copious rainfall, is naturally expected to support 

 a rich and varied flora. Yet after making every allowance 

 for the favourable conditions that obtain in this region the 

 wealth of flowers which meets the eye of the botanist is astonish- 

 ing and surpasses the dreams of the most sanguine. Com- 

 petent authorities estimate the Chinese flora to contain fully 

 15,000 species, half of which are peculiar to the country. 

 These figures speak for themselves and yet fail to give a truly 

 adequate idea of the profusion of flowers. The remote mountain 

 fastnesses of central and Western China are simply a botanical 

 paradise, with trees, shrubs, and herbs massed together in a 

 confusion that is bewildering. On first arriving in a new and 

 strange country it is difficult to recognize the plants one is 

 familiar with under cultivation, and many months necessarily 

 elapse before one is in any sense familiar with the common 

 plants around him. During the eleven years I travelled in 

 ~ China I collected some 65,000 specimens, comprising about 

 5000 species, and sent home seeds of over 1500 different plants. 

 ^Nevertheless, it was only during the latter half of this period 

 cr> VOL. II. — I 



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