CHARLES MARIES. 



COLLECTOR IN JAPAN AND CHINA. 



18771879. 



CHARLES MARIES was born at Stratford-on-Avon in the county 

 of Warwick. He was educated at the Grammar School at 

 Hampton Lucy during the years 1861 to 1865, where the 

 present Professor Henslow was Head -master, and to whom 

 Maries was greatly indebted for his knowledge of Botany. 



From school Maries proceeded to Lytham in Lancashire, 

 where his brother had a small nursery, in which he worked for 

 the next seven years, afterwards obtaining employment in the 

 houses at Chelsea. He proved to be an industrious and steady 

 workman and was eventually selected to undertake an exploring 

 expedition to the Far East, the object of which was to obtain 

 seeds of the coniferous trees of Japan, and to explore the great 

 Yangtsze valley of China, rightly believed to possess a rich 

 arboreal vegetation, and many plants that would prove hardy 

 in this country. 



Maries left London on February 1st 1877, visiting Hong 

 Kong, Ningpo, the snowy mountains of which he explored, 

 and Shanghai in China, arriving at Nagasaki, Japan, on 

 April 20th. Remaining a short time to note the various 

 cultivated plants, many of which had been introduced to 

 Western gardens by Fortune, he left Nagasaki, for 

 Shimenosiki, and, by way of the Inland Sea, Ozaka and 

 Kioto, reached Yokohama. 



79 



