ECONOMIC BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN CHINA. 

 By Frank N. Meyer, Washington, D. C. 



Delivered before the Society, with stereopticon illustrations, 

 March 25, 1916. 



Many of our most valued plants are really immigrants. I will 

 enumerate only a few. For instance, wheat has come from Pales- 

 tine and Syria; barley also; oats from Europe; corn (maize) from 

 Central America; rice from India; apples from Europe and Central 

 Asia; pears from Southwestern Europe; peaches from China; 

 cherries from Asia Minor; vinifera grapes from Central Asia; 

 oranges from Southern China; olives from regions around the 

 Mediterranean; walnuts from China, Persia, and the Caucasus; 

 hazelnuts from Southern and Western Europe; the so-called Irish 

 potato came from the islands off the coast of Chili, South America; 

 sweet potatoes from South America; peanuts and tobacco also; 

 cucumbers and eggplant from India; and watermelons and sor- 

 ghum from Africa. Our ornamental trees, shrubs, and herbs have 

 been collected from the four quarters of the compass. 



In introducing new plants, man has found out that the closer 

 the climate a plant originally comes from resembles the one it is 

 brought into, the better it will thrive. Now, certain regions on this 

 globe resemble at large climatically and topographically the 

 LTnited States very much indeed, and of all countries China re- 

 sembles North America very closely. And not only that climate 

 and general appearances are much alike, but the Floras of both 

 countries have much in common. A person having been suddenly 

 transferred from some part of the South Eastern United States, or 

 vice versa, would scarcely know at times where he really was. 



The United States Department of Agriculture knew many of 

 these facts, and a good many more, and as it is pretty nearly im- 

 possible to get enough data and material through correspondence, 

 it was decided to make a thorough exploration in China along 

 agricultural and horticultural lines, and I was selected to do this 



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