1117 



(Mains baccata) . There is very much variation in the 

 trees as regards appearance, pubescence of leaves, 

 size of fruits and of flowers, etc. Some trees pre- 

 sent a silvery-gray appearance while others are quite 

 green. Whether all of these strains will be equally 

 immune is yet to be solved. 



"This pear will be of immense value as a stock 

 for the very greater part of the United States, but 

 more especially so for those parts where the summers 

 are hot and the winters only moderately cold. As a 

 factor in hybridisation work it offers but little 

 prospect since the fruits are ridiculously small, 

 often only the size of a small choke-cherry. Pyrus 

 ussuriensis however offers much better promise for breed- 

 ing work, that is, to obtain a hardy pear for cold 

 regions, but as a stock it probably cannot be grown 

 in regions where summer temperatures go high. Pro- 

 fessor Reimer stated to me last September that the 

 leaves of it got slightly scorched at Talent during a 

 hot spell in July, I believe. In China, to my know- 

 ledge, I have never seen a specimen of Pyrus ussuriensis 

 in a real hot part of the country; it always occurs 

 there where the real Mains baccata thrives and Juglans 

 jnandshurica. Both of these plants love relatively cool 

 summers, just like I do myself. 



"And now as regards collecting a large quantity 

 of seeds of the wild calleryana pear, for which purpose 

 I made this special sixteen-day trip. Well, around 

 Ichang itself there are too few trees and they are 

 too small; around Kingmen, however, four to five days 

 march due northeast, we found many trees and I have 

 advanced my interpeter 100 Hupeh dollars , which he has 

 been paying out as bargain money to various parties 

 around Kingmen and in the early days of September of 

 this year the natives will try to bring to us in King- 

 men about 5000 catties of fresh ripe fruits and we 

 will have to arrange about prices and about cleaning 

 methods. 



"So we have to be again here in early September 

 and if not, the advance money is spent in vain and of 

 course no seeds will be received by anybody. 



"The climate around Kingmen is much more conti- 

 nental than in Ichang, as the cold winds from Honan 

 strike right down there on their way into Hunan. The 

 Rev. J. S. Johnson, of the Swedish-American Mission- 

 ary Covenant, who is stationed at times in Kingmen, 

 told me that this winter the ice was 7 to 9 inches 

 thick and his mandarin orange trees had suffered very 



