E. H. WILSON. 



COLLECTOE IN CENTKAL AND WESTERN CHINA AND ON THE 

 TIBETAN FRONTIER. 



18991905. 



E. H. WILSON, the most recent of our successful travellers and 

 collectors, was born in Birmingham, and received part of his 

 early training in Botany and Horticulture in the Botanic 

 Gardens of that town. 



He afterwards entered the Royal Gardens at Kew as a 

 young gardener, and when an application was made to Sir 

 W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, the late Director of the Gardens, for a 

 man likely to prove suitable to undertake a prolonged journey 

 in China, the late Director suggested Wilson for the post. 



The object in sending a traveller to Central China was to 

 obtain seed of species likely to prove hardy in Great Britain, 

 and living representatives of certain plants only known to 

 exist from dried specimens in the herbaria of various 

 European countries. 



Wilson sailed from Liverpool in April 1899. Travelling 

 by way of America, he visited Professor Sargent, the well- 

 known authority on ligneous plants at Boston, and consulted 

 him respecting the trees and shrubs likely to be found in China. 



The desired information obtained, Wilson proceeded, and 

 arrived at Hong Kong on June 3rd 1899. 



Before leaving for the interior it was considered advisable 



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