74 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 156. 



solving questions of this sort. At all events it ought to 

 give Americans the unique opportunity of seeing a forest 

 which is not in danger of being devastated and' then aban- 

 doned, but which is looked upon as a property of ever- 

 increasing productiveness and value— a forest in which the 

 lumber camp and shanty and the temporary road give place 

 to houses for constant occupancy, well-laid roads and per- 

 manent constructions for a scheme of operations which 

 looks to the distant future. Not to speak of the educational 

 value of such an establishment, its moral effect would not 

 be inconsiderable. When the function of a forest as a source 

 of production which is never to fail comes to be generally 

 understood the public indignation at forest-destruction will 

 be quickened. It will not seem a trifling or venial misde- 

 meanor to fire a property which is growing in value under 

 the expenditure of much thought and labor and money. 

 Our forests will be guarded from destruction when the 

 people understand how much they are worth, and an object- 

 lesson in successful forest-management will be of signal 

 assistance in spreading a popular appreciation of their value. 



The Forsythia as a Pillar Plant. 



THE illustration on page 79 represents the front of the 

 entrance lodge of Mr. Hunnewell's estate at Wellesley, 

 Massachusetts, draped with plants of Forsythia suspensa. It 

 is published for the purpose of showing the value of this 

 beautiful and well-known Japanese shrub for covering porches 

 and arbors, and for training to pillars, for which purposes its 

 long, flexible, pendulous branches admirably adapt it. There 

 are, indeed, few plants capable of supporting the rigors of our 

 northern winters which are so well suited to ornament the 

 garden in this manner ; and there is not in all the long list of 

 our hardy shrubs a single one which produces year a'tter year 

 a greater wealth of brilliantly colored [lowers and of dark- 

 green, lustrous, handsome leaves, or which grows more freely 

 and vigorously, or is less liable to the ravages of disease and 

 of noxious insects. This plant is easily propagated by seed, 

 which in some seasons is produced in large quantities, or by 

 cuttings, which root very freely. Every branch when it touches 

 the ground produces roots, and broad thickets are soon formed 

 from which young rooted plants can be obtained. These 

 planted in rich soil will grow, in the course of two or three 

 years, into broad masses six or eight feet high. 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China and 

 - Eastern Burma. — I. 



I T is now nearly eighteen months since I finished a series of 

 ■»■ articles in Garden and Forest on recent botanical dis- 

 coveries in China. Since the last of that series was written 

 Kew has received further consignments from D. A. Henry, 

 partly from central and western China and partly from the 

 little-explored island of Hainan, an island of considerable size 

 in the extreme south-east of China, situated within the tropics. 

 The collection from central and western China, mainly from 

 the provinces of Hupeh and Szechuen, consisted of about 

 2,700 members, and probably not less than 1,500 species, in- 

 cluding many new ones, to say nothing of new generic types. 

 The collection from Hainan consisted of about 750 members, 

 but was less interesting horticulturally. Since then, too, 

 Forbes & Hemsley's " Index Florae Sinensis" has been pub- 

 lished down to the end of the gamopetalous orders, and some 

 progress has been made with the apetalous orders. Further, 

 the writer has assisted General H. Collett in working out an 

 interesting collection of dried plants made by the latter in the 

 southern Shan Hills, Upper Burma. Mr. A. Franchet has 

 published three parts of the " Plantae Delavayanae," a marvel- 

 ously rich collection from the province of Yunnan ; and Mr. 

 Maximowicz has made some important contributions to the 

 flora of central Asia, north-western China and the contiguous 

 territories from the collections of various Russian explorers, 

 notably of Przewalski and Potanin. Although highly interest- 

 ing botanically, these plants, generally speaking, are not of an 

 ornamental character. In addition to these partly described 

 collections, Kew has lately acquired a valuable collection made 

 by Mr. A. E. Pratt in western Szechuen on the Thibetan frontier, 

 at elevations of 9,000 to 13,500 feet. From a cursory examina- 

 tion this last collection promises to be equally as rich in novel- 

 ties as any of the preceding. 



When the late Dr. Asa Gray wrote on " Forest Geography 

 and Archaeology " about twelve years ago he drew some com- 

 parisons between the composition of the forests of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific states of North America, and contrasted the 

 American forests with the European and with those of the 

 extreme east of Asia, eastern Mandshuria and Japan. The 

 principal results of Gray's investigations were the relative 

 great poverty of the forests of the Pacific side in deciduous 

 trees as compared with the forests of the Atlantic side; the 

 general poverty of the European forests having regard to the 

 number of different genera and species represented in their 

 composition, and the surpassing richness in genera and 

 species of the extreme east of Asia, especially when taking 

 into consideration the smallness of the geographical area. 

 Dr. Gray computed the arboreous element in the flora of 

 Japan and eastern Mandshuria and the adjacent borders of 

 China to consist of sixty-six genera (nineteen coniferous and 

 forty-seven non-coniferous) and 168 species, of which forty- 

 five were coniferous. His estimate of the arboreous element 

 in the European flora was just about half these numbers ; but 

 it was probably a little too low. Be that as it may, the esti- 

 mate for eastern Asia was not too high ; and Gray was of 

 opinion then that the figures given were not exaggerated, and 

 were much more likely to be sensibly increased by further 

 knowledge than were those of any of the other regions. Sub- 

 sequent botanical explorations in China have emphasized 

 the wealth of the forests of temperate Asia. In central and 

 western China what may be termed Japanese and Himalayan 

 types overlap, the latter predominating. By types I do not 

 mean identical species, for the majority are local, but species 

 of the same genera, facies and character. 



Not the least interesting among these recent collections is 

 that alluded to above from the Shan Hills, in Upper Burma, 

 the results of General Collett's spare moments. One of the 

 most remarkable features in the Shan Hills flora is the pre- 

 dominance of plants belonging to genera characteristic of 

 temperate regions, and this at elevations of about 4,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea and within the tropics ! 



Before proceeding to an enumeration of the more note- 

 worthy plants of the Shan- Hills it may be well to say a few 

 words respecting the climate, physical features and general 

 character of the vegetation, extracted from General Collett's 

 observations recorded in our joint report, which lately ap- 

 peared in the Journal of the Linnean Society of London. 



The area in which the bulk of the collection was made lies 

 between the nineteenth and twenty-second parallels of north 

 latitude, and is bounded on the east by the Palween River and 

 on the west by the plains of Upper Burma, and consists of 

 several distinct ranges of hills running north and south and 

 rising in occasional peaks to a height of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, and 

 enclosing table-lands of 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Along the western border of this mountainous region is a belt 

 of jungle or forest of tropical composition. Up to about 2,000 

 or 2,500 feet of elevation the forest is dry, the soil poor, the 

 trees stunted, and fires are of frequent occurrence. At an 

 elevation of about 2,500 feet, and up to 3,500 to 4,000 feet, 

 there is a great change in the character of the vegetation, 

 owing partly to greater humidity, partly to a lower tempera- 

 ture. The trees are larger ; Mosses, Lichens and Ferns 

 abound; the hill-sides are covered with undergrowth, and 

 numerous trees and herbaceous plants appear that are not 

 found at lower levels : such are Ouercus, Schima Wallichii 

 and two or three of the arboreous compositae of the genera 

 Vernonia and Leucomeris. From the gloomy depths of this 

 forest the traveler passes, by one step, as it were, on to the 

 open breezy table-land intervening between the skirt of the 

 forest and the next range of mountains ; and the sensation 

 is a pleasant one, after days of toilsome marching along nar- 

 row pathways cut through the dense jungle, where the atmos- 

 phere is stagnant and the view restricted to objects imme- 

 diately at hand. Rolling grassy hills open before one, studded 

 here and there with clumps and solitary trees of Oaks and 

 Pines, and carpeted with low flowering shrubs and charming 

 herbaceous plants. The presence at elevations of only about 

 4,000 feet of such genera as Thalictrum, Anemone, Ranun- 

 culus, Delphinium, Viola, Silene, Stellaria, Hypericum, Poly- 

 gala, Impatiens, Agrimonia, Poterium, Epilobium, GEnanthe 

 Galuim, Echinops, Primula, Swertia, Fraxinus, Pedicularis, 

 Mentha and Ajuga will give an idea of the temperate char- 

 acter of the flora. Of course it does not follow that the species 

 there found of the genera just enumerated would prove hardy 

 in the climate of either New York or London. Indeed, the 

 probabilities are that they would not ; but General Collett col- 

 lected a good many novelties that would well deserve the 

 shelter of a greenhouse. His whole collection contained up- 



