i8 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



For two-thirds of their height they are so densely clad with 

 flowers that they look like one large thyrse. The colour is 

 lilac, often very dark ; but a white form is not uncommon. 

 Its outward resemblance to Lilac leads to its being so called by 

 the foreign residents at Ichang. 



The Coriaria is not so well known and is not nearly so 

 attractive. Its flowers are pol^^gamous, and the plant when in 

 fruit is rather showy. The Chinese consider its foliage and stem 

 poisonous to cattle. 



Wisteria sinensis is abundant, often scaling high trees, but 

 the semi-bush form is the more common. Its flowers are borne 

 in great abundance, and vary much in shade of colour, the 

 white form being, however, rather rare. 



Another well-known shrub which abounds here is Loro- 

 petalum chinense. On the tops of the cliffs, amongst loose 

 conglomerate and limestone boulders, it forms a well-nigh im- 

 penetrable scrub. The bushes are seldom more than 3 feet in 

 height, very much branched, and when in full flower look like 

 patches of snow at a distance. Messrs. Veitch show the plant 

 very well, but there is an enormous gulf between the best grown 

 pot plants and the plants in a state of nature. In Devon and 

 Cornwall, if planted in a rockery, it ought to thrive. 



Rose bushes abound everywhere, and in April perhaps 

 afford the greatest show of any one kind of flower. Rosa 

 IcBvigata and R. microcarpa are more common in fully exposed 

 places. Rosa multiflora, R. moschata, and R. Banksice are 

 particularly abundant on the cliffs and crags of the glens and 

 gorges, though by no means confined thereto. The Musk and 

 Banksian Roses often scale tall trees, and a tree thus festooned 

 with their branches laden with flowers is a sight to be re- 

 membered. To walk through a glen in the early morning or 

 after a slight shower, when the air is laden with the soft delicious 

 perfume from myriads of Rose flowers, is truly a walk through 

 an earthly paradise. 



In March and April Sophora vicii/olia is very fine in the 

 glens and gorges when it is covered with masses of bluish white 

 flowers. This plant has a very wide distribution. It is common 

 in Yunnan, and in the warm valleys of rivers bordering Thibet. 

 The Ichang plant is much less spiny than that of Yunnan and 



