813 



bushes right on the missionary property, namely, on the 

 grounds of a former Tibetan temple called Lu ba tze and 

 though he was hot aware of these things being good for 

 anything but firewood, he now has become much interested 

 in them and for all I know he might have despatched al- 

 ready some seeds for you, for I made the arrangement with 

 him on Nov. 27, 1914, and gave him your address and in- 

 structions to send through the American Consul at Shanghai . 

 I may say that the altitude of New Taochow is, by my ane- 

 roid 9,400 feet; the climate is semi-arid, the rains fall- 

 ing in the summer, with clear, cold winters in which com- 

 paratively little snow falls. The growing seasons are 

 short and local Chinese and Tibetans say that the summers 

 are becoming cooler these last years. 



"He will also try to obtain for us seed of the real 



Moutan peony, which occurs in very inaccessible mountain 



( valleys in Tibet proper, where white men are not allowed 



to proceed to under ordinary circumstances. He has native 



helpers, however, who can do such a job. 



"In regions West and South West of Siku, heretofore 

 unexplored by white men, I found groves of hazelnut trees 

 growing from 80 ft. to 100 ft. in height (Corylus Ubetica?) 

 The season for the nuts was passed long ago and 'the few 

 nuts I collected are probably bad, since the rodents carry 

 away all the good ones. I collected scions, however, 

 which I hope will arrive alive. 



"In these same regions we went through groves of mag- 

 nificent spruces, growing 150 ft. to 200 ft', in height and 

 with trunks 12 to 15 ft. in circumference. I also found a 

 few trees of very peculiar make, standing midway between a 

 chestnut and a hazelnut. Then I noticed a Ribes growing 

 25 feet in height, Hippophae rhamnoides as a tree, 40 ft. 

 tall; splendid red-barked birches (Betvula bhojpattra? ) up to 

 100 ft. in height and stranger yet, clumps of a very hardy 

 small bamboo, Arundinaria nitida, growing well in the shade 

 of firs, spruces, red and white birches and covered with 

 snow at elevations from 8,000 to over 10,000 feet above 

 sea level. On one mountain top even tall firs, tree-like 

 Rhododendrons and this bamboo formed an almost impenetra- 

 ble jungle and this place was just about 10,000 ft. in al- 

 titude by my aneroid. I really never had expected to find 

 a bamboo there and in such a company. 



"This Arundinaria nitida is really not a handsome bamboo, 

 for it is rather leafless and dies off at the tops, the 

 canes grow from a few feet in height up to 40 feet in very 

 favorable localities, with much shelter, they remain very 

 thin, however, more or less in the nature of a reed. The 

 natives, however, use them extensively in the weaving of 

 large mats; in basketry of various forms; as house build- 

 ing material and in the making of strong cables, along 



