ECONOMIC BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN CHINA 129 



having glass root's, they have a mud roof, which only sHghtly slopes, 

 and to admit light, they have a vertical front, always on the South, 

 composed of stems of the great sorghum plant, Andropogon vulgare, 

 which are covered over with strong transparent paper. Not 

 having any stoves, hot water, or steam apparatus, the heating is 

 done by means of flues and still with all these primitive arrange- 

 ments they are able to force various plants into bloom, such as 

 magnolias, M. conspicua; lilacs, Syringa meycri; peonies, Paeonia 

 suffndicosa; snowballs. Viburnum fragrans; flowering plums, 

 Prunus triloba; flowering peaches and others, and they grow even 

 cucumbers in these greenhouses, of which the young fruits are sold 

 at high prices in winter and early spring. 



As garden and park architects the Chinese are wonderfully clever, 

 much more so than the world knows. Japan has been given all of 

 the credit for beauty and daintiness of her gardens and parks, 

 but in my opinion, a well-laid-out Chinese park is fully as inter- 

 esting, and possesses even stronger outlines. Take, for instance, 

 the park of the summer palace near Peking, there are very few parks 

 in the world that can match it in striking beauty. We, here in 

 America, certainly ought to have a real Chinese park in one of our 

 progressive cities. Why could not Boston take the initiative? 



Our Government is engaged upon the introduction of many 

 important Chinese fruits, and I can only give you a rough outline 

 of this work. There are in China hundreds of varieties of persim- 

 mons, and not only are they eaten fresh, but some varieties are dried 

 like figs and resemble the last in looks and taste very much. They 

 even make a liquor from some of them, also vinegar and even a 

 special kind of sugar. Then there is the jujube, Zizyphus jujuba, 

 a fruit very much like a Persian date, of which there also are a few 

 hundred varieties in existence. This fruit tree is especially fit for 

 regions with long hot summers, and a limited rainfall, such condi- 

 tions prevailing in Texas, California, and other southwestern states. 



The Chinese have found out that by "ringing" certain varieties 

 every year by running a saw through the bark all around the main 

 trunk, they can make them bear much heavier than by leaving 

 them alone. It is curious to find out that the peasants in Zante, 

 Gi'eece, have this very same practice of ringing their currant vines 

 every spring for the very same reason. One naturally asks oneself 



