HORTUS VEITCHII 



were raised and flowered at Langley in September 1904. 

 Another remarkable find was a new, striking, and most 

 promising Tncarvillea. 



This ended work for the season, and Wilson at once 

 commenced preparations for his return home. Leaving 

 Kiating on December 8th, he arrived at Chung-king on 

 the 14th, and early in 1905 reached Ichang. The collec- 

 tions were here repacked, and with them he finally left China 

 in January of that year, arriving in England in the month of 

 March. 



The five years' collections comprised some 25,000 dried 

 specimens, representing some 5,000 species : these were 

 distributed amongst the principal herbaria in Europe and 

 America ; and in addition seeds of 1,800 species, some 

 30,000 bulbs of new and rare species of Lilium, and living 

 roots and rhizomes of various herbs and shrubs were sent to 

 Messrs. Veitch. 



Wilson was unusually sympathetic to the Chinese tempera- 

 ment, always prepared to yield a point, but firm when 

 necessary, a contrast to his predecessor, Charles Maries, who, 

 when in the Tchang region of the Yangtsze valley in 1879, 

 could have sent many plants, subsequently found by Wilson, 

 and which even at that time were undeniably accessible. 

 Maries was difficile ; and the natives, naturally resenting this, 

 destroyed the collection, and he returned to the coast reporting 

 the people hostile. 



References: James H. Veitch in Jour. E.H.S. vol. xxviii. pt. i. ; Gard. 

 Chron. 1905, vol. xxxvii. p. 113, with portrait ; id. " Leaves from 

 my Chinese Note-book," passim. 



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