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 NfW YOB. 

 BOTANICAJ 



GARDEN 



PREFACE 



IN the following pages I have endeavoured to 

 give a general account of Western China, more 

 especially of its natural history and of the manners 

 and customs of the non-Chinese peoples inhabiting 

 the Chino-Thibetan borderland. The attempt is based 

 as broadly as possible, and it is earnestly hoped that 

 the information will be of interest to many sorts and 

 conditions of people. 



My travels in Western China began early in 1899, 

 and had for their object the collecting of botanical 

 specimens and the introducing of new plants into the 

 gardens of Europe and North America. I have made 

 four separate expeditions, covering in all nearly eleven 

 years, and the nature of my work made it necessary 

 for me to eschew the beaten tracks of the Flowery 

 Kingdom. 



The opportunity to travel and study the natural 

 history of China I owe to the business enterprise of the 

 house of Veitch, the famous nurserymen of Chelsea, 

 to whom I was recommended by Sir William T. 

 Thiselton-Dyer, then Director of Kew Gardens, at the 

 instigation of Mr. W. Watson, the present Curator 

 of that establishment. My first two expeditions were 

 in the interest of Messrs. Veitch ; the last two in that 

 of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. 

 The results of these four trips are well known in 

 the horticultural and botanical circles of Europe 

 and North America. 



In my wanderings in China I have been singularly 



fortunate. The Chinese treated me always with 



^^indly courtesy and respect. I was in interior China 



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