49 
smilacifolia, which is a very grand plant indeed. e is 
into flower now in the shade of the woods an Hdge- 
worthia, which, I think, is new, as the leaves are iliret and 
are also persistent. Like most of the plants which grow in 
shade only, the flowers are white. As at Men ngtze, this is the 
best season for plant collecting; the we oat ard emake 
dry, and there are almost as many plants in 
the spring, t.e., in the forests. In the dry, étpolédi hills "he 
grass is withered brown, and eee is some appearance of 
winter effects; but in the protection of the ravines there is, as it 
were, spring. The temperature this morning was 4° C. only. 
You remarked in your last letter that the Ginseng plant did 
not Marce with you. You ought to try in the case of the 
low toda over which leaves are sprea ad as a roof, so that the 
plants only get a glimmering light. After the first year the 
plants are always transplanted, and still kept growing under the 
sheds just mentioned. In a similar way Coptis Teeta is 
cultivated. These plants cannot apparently bear any direct 
sunlight. 
Some of Morse's Lungchow plants will go forward with my 
next Ben He found Lysidice, a remarkable Cwsalpiniacea, 
which must be a en beautiful tree, also a species of 
Aden m a Malpighiac genus not hitherto recorded 
from China, etc. He is now at t Pakhoi, ind I hope to receive 
some plants from there from him. 
I hope the revolving iin of the Service may send me to 
of rivalling Delavay's collections from the mountains near Tali. 
I am, of course, satisfied with Szemao, as it is really very interest- 
ing in many ways; but I ee a away on trips, and my short 
excursions are limited to forests which are very uniform in 
character. Andina mountainous country one likes to have two 
or three distinct floras to wo 
My Lolo studies are se on. I have found out many curious 
things in their writings. The occurrence of Taboo is interesting, 
I think—in the way it occurs. Each s urname, as a rule, nee 
a tree or animal name, and the bearers of the surname can’t touch 
in any way the tree or anita belonging to them. This jase or 
animal is, however, not considered sacred or an object of worship. 
ases are—nearly all—explained as the visitation of evil 
the word which e expresses the thing exactly. This 
ditag omen—Slo-taæ in Lolo, is some uncanny occurrence 
cow, e.g., getting on the rout of a house is sure to bring trouble in 
the way of illness ; and the s/o-ta here concerned rhust be averted 
by reading an appropriate ritual. 
The Lolos have a rigid enough set of morals; but they are 
entirely devoid, A think, of the idea of s/n. "They are very severe 
on theft, and a man, e.g., cutting down a tree which blocks the 
path is Moose to do wrong, but a man getting drunk, that is 
not considered a wrong. In other words, they have the concep- 
ion of wrongs, done by one person to another—infractions against 
