801 



The elevation I found them was almost exactly 4000 

 feet a. s. I gathered some fruits, but they are not quite 

 ripe: I am trying to ripen them off, however, so that we 

 may obtain at least a few ripe seeds. As a stock however 

 it has not the value the clavidiana peach has, not being as 

 vigorous and apparently being attacked by the same pests 

 that infest cultivated peaches. This "find" is of great 

 interest however, showing that wild peaches exist much 

 nearer the coast than we suspected and that the peach nat- 

 urally is a native of semi-arid regions. Whether China is 

 the real home or whether it is only one of the homes of 

 the peach is a question we cannot solve as yet. Will it 

 prove to be that the peach occurs also in Persia and Af- 

 ghanistan, like the walnut, which is found wild in the 

 Caucasus, Persia, Western China and N. E. China? 



There are some more plants occurring here in North 

 Eastern China, which are found also on the other side of 

 the Continent, like the Apricot, Diospyros lotus (Crimea, 

 Caucasus, India, 'etc.), Ziziphus sativa (North Africa and 

 North China), Buxus sempervirens (Western Caucasus and 

 Western Hupeh) , Nelumbium speciosum (Lake Hanka, E. Siberia 

 and Caspian Sea, at mouth of Volga), and on this last trip 

 I have found so much real wild alfalfa on the whole way 

 from Lin hsien in Homin, almost up to this place here and 

 in such out-of-the-way places and so utterly out of reach 

 of men and of animals and often in company with other 

 medicagos, like M. lupulina, that we safely can say that 

 the common crawling and spreading strain of Medicago sativa 

 is a real native of this country. The tall, upright form 

 might have been brought from Central Asia, no doubt, as is 

 stated in Chinese chronicles. 



V/e have had some very hard days on that whole trip 

 from Changte fu, over Lin hsien, and Luanfu to here (Ping 

 yang fu) , for the whole country, with a few exceptions, is 

 very mountainous and most of our travel had to be done 

 with packmules and the heat ! --Great Scott! --All of our 

 candles are molten together and the sealing wax inside 

 of a small case, within one of my trunks, had fraternized 

 with leadpencils and rubber bands, and the whole thing has 

 become one fantastically looking mass. The alcohol in an 

 iron tin, which is inside a wooden case, became heated , and 

 we had to let the gas pass off to prevent an explosion. 

 Now however I find that this alcohol has been reduced con- 

 siderably in volume and worse yet it has no strength any- 

 more. The fruit I had in the tin, as peaches, plums, ap- 

 ricots, etc., have all become dissolved and only the 

 stones and some pieces of skin are left on the bottom. 



I conclude, therefore, that in the heat of the summer 

 one cannot carry fruits in alcohol with one. This winter 

 I'll try it again. 



