296 
have this peculiarity. These are all forest pueda and I think the 
explanation is that in forests there are urfaces open to 
tre 
o 
climbers can’t get to the top, so they have their 
ue at the bottom. But of course this explanation is only a 
There is no time for me to make any observations of the 
ER necessary ; ; if one could spend six months on end ina forest, 
one could observe, measure, &c. The Mucuna sempervirens of 
Iebang was a splendid example of this peculiarity. „There was in 
specimen a dense wall e foliage i "100 1 ng over trees, inter- 
geal with them, &c., nearly 200 ft. 100 ft., while the main 
runk of the climber close to ‘the a was covered with flowers 
which ign easily visited di thousands of insects m e eei 
There is quite a little group of shrubs which on the 
banks of rivers end anda in beds of streamlets) that "overflow. 
. These shrubs are submerged often and are not hurt. The ese 
fluviatile ieg ese a ortas facies, ex difficult to describe. 
Yun 
There b or 40 species of them in the nan n 
valleys, These shrubs don’t e elsewhere than on banks 
in the beds of streams. The last one I have found is x dens 
fine species of Ficus. This class " shia would be a nice reti 
2 " you will try and get a young Cambridge or Oxford 
botanist to come to this part of the world, do some €— 
Noi pem collect seeds and live plants for cultivation. Chin 
is a very easy country to travel in, and expenses of velis 
are not heavy. The mountainous regions of Yunnan and 
Szechwan are very healthy besides 
With regard to San-ch'i es species of Aralia $ Panax), the 
medicinal plant of which I have ent you herbarium specimens 
next mail. It wouid bea favourable opportunity, if one of the 
staff had time, to go through the section and make a little 
synopsis of it. It includes the American mc ren pom Corean 
into each other in a puzz ing Beef it is very curious that the 
Chinese should have selected two forms—one in the extreme 
which European doctors consider useless. Take sarsaparilla and 
china-root, species of diii much believed in by native American 
races and by the 
ith regard to Benz zoin, it is not known here ; but our ype 
wi probably take a trip by-and- -bye down into Sia am, and I w 
and induce him to make enquiries for the tree. Have in 
tried writing on the subject to the British Consul at Chiengmai, 
in Siam? The Yunnan plateau is apparently continued into the 
Shan States, and teak, benzoin, &c., are probably ideni to the 
lower levels lying sout 
have some specimens—only leaves—of the tree which produces 
the very valuable cinnamon of the Laos, but I am afraid they 
will not help much in clearing up thes species. They were brought 
to Mengize by a pedlar after I had left the place. 
