182 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 481. 



time is allowed for examination they are questioned by 

 the instructor until they realize how much there is to be 

 learned by a careful examination of any natural object 

 and how to use their faculties in the way of discovery 

 We have also spoken of the elementary instruction in rural 

 schools which has been encouraged by the leaflets recently 

 devised, and we may add now that one of the latest plans 

 is a course of reading which has been devised in such a 

 way as to compel the readers to think. About sixteen 

 hundred persons are now reading systematically, although 

 the plan is but a few months old. The station officers 

 specify certain bulletins which are to be read, and then 

 they ask the readers questions upon them, and in this way 

 they are compelled to do some thinking, whether they wish 

 to or not. Subjects within the farmers' comprehension are 

 always selected. The first subject of study was the soil, and 

 two bulletins were prepared, one on its texture and the other 

 on the moisture it contained, and readers were requested to 

 note anything upon which they needed more light or any 

 statement which they wished to challenge, and were in- 

 vited to send their queries and opinions to the station after 

 they had thought them over carefully. But, not content 

 with this, specific inquiries were addressed to every reader 

 on both of these subjects, and the questions were so 

 searching that no one could reply to them without some 

 active use of his faculties. 



Bulletin 122, published last December, the second an- 

 nual report of this extension work, describes with con- 

 siderable detail this experiment, for, of course, it is still an 

 experiment. Nevertheless, every advance has been made 

 with such caution and foresight that one cannot help feel- 

 ing confident that the scheme, taken altogether, has ex- 

 panded on most efficient lines. The recommendations in 

 the concluding paragraph will commend themselves to 

 every one. The several agencies which we have named 

 should all be under the direction of a single bureau, 

 removed from partisan influence, and associated with the 

 original investigations in agriculture. This bureau ought 

 to have an intimate connection with the Department of Pub- 

 lic Instruction, so as to reach teachers, and through them the 

 schools. Teachers in normal schools should be trained by 

 experts in rural subjects. At the conclusion of this bulletin 

 Professor Bailey notes as a matter to be thought of with 

 astonishment how scant and poor has been the teaching 

 hitherto which has had even a remote relation to the tilling 

 of the soil. Many of our rural books do not seem to have 

 been born of any real sympathy with the farmer or any 

 just appreciation of his environment. It is a significant 

 fact that the farmers of this state, as a whole, have proved 

 themselves willing and anxious to be educated. They are 

 difficult to reach, not because they are unwilling to learn, 

 but because they have not been well taught. 



Primula, two or three Clematis, an Evonymus with remarkably 

 durable and strong wood, occurring on the range. Two or three 

 large Aralias (or kindred genus) occur right up to the summit. 

 A very common tree was the TetracentronSinense, Oliver. This 

 tree is very large, indeed, but the wood is not esteemed. Its 

 fruit-spikes were lying; scattered all over the forests, and most 

 of the seed fallen. However, I secured a few seeds, which I 

 enclose in this note. The tree is of interest trom its position 

 in the family Trochodendracea?. 



I spent two days on the Red River, where a tropical vegeta- 

 tion exists, and I found the Tomato and Carica papaya natural- 

 ized and growing abundantly. I found some interesting plants 

 there also. The most marked peculiarity is the bizarreness of 

 the fruits. One tree has pods two or three feet long clothed 

 with a dense covering of brown hair, like the tail of an animal. 

 The Tamarind, Raphis, the Banana were all there in the wild 

 state. I forgot to mention that immense evergreen Oaks occur 

 in the mountain forests. 



However, the most interesting point of the journey was the 

 aborigines. In the chief's district, say, a region twenty miles 

 square, in addition to Chinese settlers, no less than seven dis- 

 tinct tribes dwell — distinct, that is, in physiognomy — with 

 language mutually unintelligible, never intermarrying and 

 having little or no social intercourse with each other, and 

 possibly existing in this state for centuries. I collected vocabu- 

 laries of their speeches, and they divide into three groups — 

 Lolo, Meaotze and Shan. The languages are all of the Chinese 

 type, monosyllabic — that is, non-intiectional, with tones — and 

 the peoples are Mongolic ; but behind their Mongolian origin 

 is strong evidence of two other stocks : (a) a pigmy and ex- 

 primitive race, and (b) a negro element; characterized by the 

 receding forehead and thick lips and occasional woolly hair. 

 One people has extremely swarthy skins. 



I found the Lolos proper in possession of a written charac- 

 ter, in daily use, which seems to be an offshoot from very 

 ancient Chinese (A. D. 1). 



So you see how interesting, from many points, this region is. 

 Great red deer and large and small bears occur in the forest, as 

 evidenced by their numerous tracks, and many of the trees 

 were marked by the claws of the smaller bear, who builds a 

 kind of nest in the trees to sleep in. 



We have received another letter from Dr. Augustine 

 Henry, of the Chinese Customs Service, in which he men- 

 tions a remarkable excursion into the basin of the Red 

 River in China. No doubt, Dr. Henry will, at some future 

 time, give a more complete narrative of this tour through 

 an unknown country, and publish the details of his dis- 

 coveries. This brief account of the journey, however, is 

 so interesting that we present it to our readers : 



I have just returned from an exceedingly interesting 

 trip to the country south of the Red River, in a district 

 ruled over by an hereditary chief, who received me with great 

 kindness. I reached the great range separating the Red River 

 basin from the Black River basin, densely wooded with very 

 large trees (average twenty feet in circumference at six feet 

 from the ground), and toward the ridge, where the trees 

 cease, an impenetrable Bamboo jungle, so that the range is 

 only to be crossed at distant points by passes. The range 

 averages 8,000 feet to 10,000 feet high. As this is the dead- 

 point of the year as regards vegetable life, there was not much 

 out in flower, but I found a magnificent Rhododendron, a 

 Magnolia, two or three Camellias, Stuartia, Daphne (Indica ?), 

 a shrub with deliciously scented white flowers, an alpine 



John Evans and his Garden. 



'EW persons of the present generation know of the 

 existence of a neglected garden ten miles west of 

 Philadelphia, which in the early days rivaled the gardens 

 of John Bartram at Kingsess, and of Humphrey Marshall 

 at Marshallton. Since the reawakened interest in Bartram's 

 garden, it is surprising that the garden of John Evans 

 should so completely be lost sight of. Situated in a beau- 

 tiful country devoted to farming and summer residences of 

 rich Philadelphians, and about three-quarters of a mile 

 from Wootton, the celebrated demesne of the late George 

 W. Childs in the famous Welsh Tract, it is still a charming 

 place to visit, although its glory has departed. 



John Evans was born in Radnor township, Delaware 

 County, February 13th, 1790, and died on the 15th of April, 

 1862. He was the son of David and Adah Evans. On the 

 paternal side his ancestors were thoroughly Welsh, while 

 on that of his mother they were partly so. His early edu- 

 cation was limited, though he received rather more than 

 was usual at that time. There was a mill on the patrimo- 

 nial estate, but he preferred going to a larger establishment 

 to learn the business of milling, and after he had learned it 

 thoroughly he was employed as manager of a larger flour 

 mill, then (1S12) recently erected near the present city of 

 Troy, New York. 



After his return from Troy he resumed the milling busi- 

 ness at the homestead mill, and in 1819 married Ann, the 

 daughter of Benjamin Brown, of Radnor, by whom he had 

 six children. He subsequently engaged in the business of 

 sawing lumber for the Philadelphia market. 



Up to about the year 1827 or 1828, John Evans had not 

 shown a great preference for any particular branch of 

 science. About this time he received a visit from his kins- 

 man, Alan W. Corson, of Plymouth, Montgomery County, 

 who had with him a copy of Dr. William Darlington's 

 Florida Cestrica, then lately published, and he became from 

 that day an ardent botanist. His kinsman, Corson, and he 



