PLANT COLLECTING IN THE HEART OF CHINA. 

 By E. H. Wilson. 



Delivered before the Society, with stereoptieon illustrations, January 8, 



1910. 



Any garden, greenhouse, or florist's shop will speedily prove to 

 those interested how deeply indebted we are to the different parts 

 of the world for the beautiful plants and delicious fruits we have 

 around us and enjoy so much. It is true that the bulk of our every- 

 day flowers and fruits are the result of the cultivator's skill, but the 

 raw material necessary for him to work on had to be procured first. 

 To secure this the world has been ransacked to such an extent that 

 few countries remain unexplored. 



Our subject today is ''Plant Collecting in the Heart of China" 

 and in order to better understand it a glance at the topography of 

 China may be useful. China proper is, roughly speaking, a nearly 

 square tract of country, 20° of longitude by 20° of latitude. Its 

 southern part is just within the tropics, while the northern part 

 enjoys a very cold climate indeed. The climate is essentially 

 continental, with a rainfall varying from 30 inches in the north to 

 over 100 inches in the south. The country is split up into a series of 

 wild mountain ranges, fertile valleys and plains, and is drained by 

 a network of rivers, tw T o of which, the Yangtsze and Yellow Rivers, 

 rank among the largest rivers of the world. 



The Yangtsze River has its source in the highlands of Central 

 Asia and after pursuing a tortuous course due south through wild 

 and unknown territory for 1000 miles suddenly turns east and flows 

 right through the heart of China for a distance of 2000 miles, 

 emptying itself into the Yellow Sea just north of Shanghai. The 

 Yangtsze is navigable for steamers as far as Ichang, 1000 miles 

 from its mouth, and a huge fleet of merchant steamers ply constantly 

 on its waters. The journey, however, is dull and uninteresting 



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