HISTORICAL NOTES 13 



gorges. It was in these mountains that Henry commenced to collect 

 plants in 1885. The flora proved to be of extraordinary richness, and 

 during the next four years he sent an enormous number of dried plants 

 to Ke\v. Henry remained in various posts in China until 1900, spending 

 most of his leave in exploration and botanical collecting, travelling much 

 over the provinces of Hupeh, Szechuen, and Yunnan. After his return 

 home he studied forestry in France, and soon after, in association with 

 Henry John Elwes, commenced the great work, the Trees of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, recently completed. At present he is Professor of 

 Forestry in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



The amazing richness of the vegetation of the far provinces of China, 

 as revealed by Henry's dried plants, and the wonderful beauty many of 

 the trees and shrubs were seen to possess, induced Messrs Veitch to send 

 out a collector to obtain in a living state such as were likely to be of 

 horticultural value. On the recommendation of Sir Wm. Thiselton- 

 Dyer, then director of Kew, Ernest Henry Wilson was dispatched to 

 China in 1899. Wilson is a native of Chipping Campden, Gloucester- 

 shire, where he was born in 1876; after working as a young man in the 

 Botanic Gardens, Birmingham, he went, in 1897, to Kew. He possesses 

 a combination of mental and physical qualities which have made him 

 one of the greatest of plant collectors. Of athletic build, and endowed 

 with an indomitable courage and perseverance attributes of the highest 

 necessity to the plant collector in untrodden wilds he has also that deep 

 love of science, especially of botany, without which the man who adopts 

 this work is but poorly equipped. To these qualities Wilson joins a 

 business aptitude and an adaptability to new circumstances -which has 

 led to his dealings with the Chinaman being invariably successful. In 

 all, he has visited China four times, twice in the interests of Messrs 

 Veitch (1899-1902 and 1903-5), and twice under the auspices of 

 Harvard University and a number of subscribers (1907-9 and 1910-11). 

 It is too early yet to compute the full value of his services to botany and 

 to horticulture, but, to the two combined, they are such as have not 

 probably been equalled by those of any one collector. 



To give some idea of the magnitude of his labours, it may be 

 mentioned that he has introduced some 1200 species of trees and shrubs, 

 amongst which have been found about 400 new species and 4 new genera; 

 and he has collected about 65,000 sheets of herbarium specimens. 



At the present time, the botanical exploration of China is being carried 

 on by George Forrest, a native of Falkirk, born in 1873. He is now 

 engaged in his third plant-collecting expedition to China, whence he is 

 expected to return in 1915. The previous journeys were made in 1904-7, 

 and in 1910-11. 



