1284 



he found his way to the Shaw Botanical Gardens in St. 

 Louis. It was here that the Department found him when, 

 after months of search after the right man to send to 

 explore China, it had almost despaired of finding 

 anyone who combined an insatiable thirst for travel 

 and the ability to walk long distances over trails 

 and across country, with an extensive acquaintance 

 with wild plants,- a good knowledge of horticulture, 

 and an absorbing and sustaining interest in the work 

 of plant introduction. 



Meyer came into the Office of Foreign Seed and 

 Plant Introduction in July, 1905, and was sent almost 

 immediately to China, where he spent three years. Upon 

 his return he spent one year in America and then went 

 out to Chinese Turkestan, where he traveled for three 

 more years and again returned to America. His third 

 trip was into northwestern China and to the borders 

 of Tibet, and he was gone on this trip three years. 

 After another year spent in America, he again returned 

 to China in 1916 and had nearly completed his second 

 year there when death overtook him. 



He introduced during these years of collecting 

 over 2,000 species and varieties of plants; and these 

 are in the main described in the Inventories of the 

 Office. There are on file thousands of record cards 

 which give exact data as to the whereabouts and be- 

 havior of the plants which he brought in as seeds or 

 cuttings. 



Meyer's field work is done, and whether his body 

 rests beside the great river of China or under some 

 of the trees he loved and brought to this country will 

 matter little to him. He will know that throughout 

 his adopted land there will always be his own plants, 

 - hundreds of them, - on mountain sides, in valleys, 

 in fields, in the backyards and orchards of little 

 cottages, on street corners, and in the arboreta of 

 wealthy lovers of plants. And wherever they are they 

 will all be his. 



