12 HISTORICAL NOTES 



in the environs of Boston, Mass., under the auspices of Harvard University 

 and Charles Sprague Sargent, must be accounted one of the most 

 pregnant events in regard to the discovery, introduction, and cultivation of 

 hardy trees and shrubs during the last forty years. This institution, 

 conducted with admirable skill and energy, has, through the generous and 

 unselfish policy of its director, exerted an influence on the gardens of 

 Europe scarcely less beneficent than on those of its own country. The 

 exploitation of the N. American sylva, more especially on the eastern 

 side, had been comparatively neglected since the departure of the earlier 

 collectors like Fraser and Lyon. Some of the interesting plants they 

 found had disappeared from cultivation. The work has been revived by 

 Professor Sargent and a renewed interest has sprung up, especially in the 

 United States, in that most beautiful flora of the Alleghenies and other 

 parts of the south-east. Sargent has travelled not only all over N. 

 America but also in Japan, whence he introduced to cultivation a large 

 number of beautiful trees and shrubs. His magnificent printed works 

 are noticed on a previous page. 



Charles Maries, a native of Stratford-on-Avon, collected in Japan 

 and China for the Messrs Veitch between 1877 and 1879. His name 

 will be found frequently mentioned in the body of this work as the 

 introducer of plants from those countries, but more especially Japan. 

 He first brought Hamamelis mollis, Styrax Obassia, and Abies Mariesii 

 under cultivation, also numerous forms of Japanese maples. In 1882 

 Maries entered the service of one of the native princes of India, and died 

 at Gwalior in 1902. 



A great impetus to the interest taken in hardy trees and shrubs during 

 the last decade has been given by the discovery and introduction of new 

 species from Central and Western China. The work was initiated in the 

 first place by the Jesuit missionaries of France, among whom David, 

 Delavay, and Farges were most prominent. These men, stationed in 

 districts new to Europeans, spent their leisure time in botanising and 

 collecting seeds, which were first sent to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris 

 and to Maurice L. de Vilmorin, in whose grounds at Les Barres a vast 

 collection has been got together. 



So far as Great Britain is concerned, the introduction of the plants 

 of Central and Western China had its beginning in the work of 

 Augustine Henry. This famous traveller and collector was born in 

 Co. Deny, Ireland, in 1857, and was educated at Queen's Colleges, 

 Galway and Belfast. After studying medicine, he, in June 1881, entered 

 the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service at Shanghai. The 

 following year he was transferred to Ichang, a port on the Yangtze Kiang, 

 1000 miles from the sea. A few miles above the town the great river 

 finds its exit from the mountains into the great plain by way of wonderful 



