WESTERN HUPEH 17 



APPENDIX 



The Flora of Ichang 



The Flora of Ichang and the neighbourhood up to aooo feet 

 altitude, as included in this note, is essentially of a warm 

 temperate character, and includes not a few sub-tropical 

 forms. Nevertheless, we find also a number of cool temperate 

 plants, and what really obtains is a fusion of these three 

 floras, with the warm temperate element in the ascendancy. 

 The following characteristic plants will serve to illustrate the 

 point : Aleurites Fordii, Liquidamhar formosana, Ligustrum 

 lucidum, CcBsalpinia sepiaria, Toddalia asiatica, Wisteria 

 sinensis, Rhododendron indicum, Pyracantha crenulata, Primula 

 sinensis, Anemone japonica, Aspidistra punctata, Reinwardtia 

 trigyna, and Woodwardia radicans. The low hills around 

 Ichang are very barren-looking, being mostly clad with 

 " spear grass " {Heteropogon contortus), with a few shrubs 

 and herbs here and there, and relieved by small woods of 

 Pinus Massoniana and Cupressus funebris, with occasional 

 groves of the common Bamboo, Phyllostachys pubescens. 



However, it is not to these low hills that we look for the 

 floral wealth of Ichang, but to the hmestone cliffs of the glens 

 and gorges. Here the variety is astonishing, a striking feature 

 being the quantity of well-known flowering shrubs. 



The two first shrubs to flower in the early spring are 

 Daphne genkwa and Coriaria nepalensis. It is a thousand 

 pities we cannot succeed with the Daphne in England, since it 

 is such a lovely plant — by far the finest species of the genus. 

 Here, at Ichang, it grows everywhere, on the bare exposed 

 hills, amongst conglomerate rock and limestone boulders, on 

 graves, and amongst the stones which are piled around the 

 tiny cultivated plats in the gorge, sometimes in partial shade, 

 but more usually fully exposed to the scorching sun. The 

 plants are, on the average, about 2 feet in height, and are but 

 seldom branched. Imagine the annual suckers from a Plum 

 tree, and you have the appearance of these Daphne plants. 

 VOL. I. — 2 



