ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
or 
MISCELLANEOUS. INFORMATION. 
No. 143.] NOVEMBER. [1898. 
DCXXVIL—A BUDGET FROM YUNNAN—continued. 
The following letter is in continuation of those printed in the 
Kew Bulletin for 1897, pp. 99-101, and 407-414. 
Dr. A, HENRY to ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
c/o Customs, Szemao, par Loakai, 
Tongking, 8th June, 1898. 
DEAR MR. THISELTON-DYER, 
NEED 
to hear often from you. More is the pity, as letters are the only 
stimulant of a healthy kind an exile has to cheer him up in 
moments of depression, and to remind him that there is a fair 
world on the other side of the globe, where men and women live. 
On this side there is an all-prevailing stagnation, which depresses 
the stoutest heart by its constancy and immovability, and as one 
grows older the less one seems to like isolation. 
I left Mengtze in the end of January with a caravan of mules, 
e 40, carrying stores, &c. I had three mule-loads, e.g., of 
silver. The journey here took 18 days, rather easy stages. The 
country passed through was very varied. was in good spirits, 
rode nearly all the way, and enjoyed the trip very much. 
I crossed three large rivers en route by pontoon and suspension 
bridges, the latter very well made, of iron rods joined by rings a 
the ends, the best specimens I have seen of Chinese blacksmith’s 
the ugly-looking shrub Calotropis gigantea was in flower, and 
there was a great display of the tree-cotton, Bombaz, in flower, 
more than a living tree. These and some Areca palms were the 
738—1375—10/98 Wt90 D&S 29 
