COLLECTING IN TURKESTAN 



Work of Botanical Explorer Hindered By Many Difficulties and Even Dangers — 



Wild Vegetation Scarce and Flora Not Rich — Native Fruits of Mediocre 



Quality But Extremely Hardy and Resistant to Drought and Alkali.^ 



Frank N. Meyer, 



Agricultural Explorer, Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, Bureaii of 



Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



A 



Tashkent, Turkestan. 



Aug. 20, 1910. 



LL this delay is, as you surely 

 will feel with me, of very great 

 annoyance and becomes really 

 depressing. There are moments 

 when the loneliness of this exploration 

 work becomes too great and I would 

 like to fly off to regions where I could 

 find more intellectual and social sur- 

 roundings. And I have such a long 

 journey yet ahead of me. Great Scott ! 

 before I appear somewhere in Eastern 

 China, Fll have gone through many a 

 lonesome day! That's one of the trou- 

 bles connected with exploration in out- 

 of-the-way places; this loneliness and 

 this great waste of valuable time and 

 energy. Of course it cotild be worse 

 yet. Polar expeditions are still way 

 ahead of our work in waste of all sorts 

 of things. 



As I wrote you from Samarkand on 

 July 4, 1910, I had engaged a guide and 

 had had an interpreter already for a 

 few days. We had seen the police about 

 our trip and the chief had said every- 

 thing was O. K., but in Pendshikent we 

 would have to get a paper from the 

 police there. 



On Tuesday, July 5, we had negotia- 

 tions with various horsemen and cart- 



people and as we were assured that in 

 Pendshikent we would be able to get 

 cheaper and better horses, we went by 

 a large cart to that last named city on 

 the next day, where we arrived after a 

 hard ride at ten o'clock in the evening 

 of that same day. 



A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS. 



On Thursday, Jiily 7, we inspected the 

 grain market and seed stores, where I 

 bought some samples of various things 

 and in the afternoon we had conferences 

 with the police and with horse men. I 

 got a paper from the acting chief of 

 police and on Friday, July 8, we left 

 Pendshikent . We travelled first through 

 a dry, elevated plain, where scanty 

 growth of wheat, barley, linseed and 

 rape was to be seen, while tens of thou- 

 sands of locusts were devouring what- 

 ever they could find. In the afternoon 

 we went through some gullies and passes 

 and then mountain climbing had begun. 

 On a few places we saw some beautiful 

 Eremurus and yellow larkspurs, but in 

 general the mountains were devoid of 

 vegetation, save some Astragalus and 

 a Capparis spinas a and some Artemisias. 

 At 9 P. M. we stopped at last in a town 

 called Stood, about 5,000 feet above sea 

 level. We slept on the porch of the 

 Muhammadan temple and got but little 



^The story of Mr. Meyer's entry to Turkestan was told in the March issue of The Journal of 

 Heredity; the continuation of it, as told in letters to his chief, is given herewith. The accompany- 

 ing photographs are all by Mr. Meyer: the scientific names are in the form used by him, and not 

 necessarily in the form adopted by the department, when the material was distributed to plant 

 breeders in the United States. Mr. Meyer's exploration of Turkestan resulted, as most plant 

 breeders know, in the introduction to the United States of many tons of material, including 

 hundreds of species of plants suited to desert climates, which are being tested in the southwestern 

 United States. His collection of alfalfas was perhaps the most valuable single contribution. 

 Mr. Meyer is now engaged in a three-year exploration of eastern China, where he has already 

 made important discoveries of chestnuts, jujubes and persimmons. — The Editor. 



159 



