314 
iae liberality always shown to me encourages me to appeal once 
e to your obligingness, for a little information which I hav 
iot wi en able to draw from printed sources. 
In my book I do not confine myself to give a sketch of the 
botanical discoveries in China proper, but I include also in the 
scope of my researches such tributary states of VoU as Manchuria, 
Mongolia, inen Turkestan, and Tibet. As to the latter two 
countries, I intend to put on record the British a of prod 
work done in these regions, which, in recent times, have bee 
frequently visited by Russian explor Let me first tell S 
what I know about the matter from ionem sources, 
ead in the Kew Report for 1871: “A very complete and 
ma collection of Yarkand plants, the first ever made in that 
region, was presented to the Kew Gardens by Dr. Henderson.” 
Dr. G. Henderson accompanied Forsyth in his first mission to 
Yarkand. 
Kew Report for 1875 : “H. W. Bellew presented to Kew 208 
plants puni at Kashgar and Kashmir.” Bellew accompanied 
Forsyth in his second mission to Kashgar. 
These a collections probably constitute the only plants from 
Chinese Turkestan gathered by British explorers in the Kew 
Herbarium, oni several T travellers have visited these 
regions in more recent time, v 
A. D. Carey and Dalgleish, Ee in 1887, Mark Bell and 
F. E. Ser at arie sue the latter, in 1889, travelled also in the 
Pamirs; Major C. Cumberland and Lieutenant Bower, 1890 
(Karakoram Posi Yarkand). In the accounts these travellers 
have given of their journeys, no mention is made of collections. 
The Botanie Gardens, St. Petersburg, received the first plants 
from Chinese Turkestan from Przewalski, who travelled there in 
he summer of 1885. You have probably at Kew specimens of 
Kew 
high importance, and was always anxious to give complete sets 
of novelties discovered by Russians. The flora of Chinese Tur- 
kestan is not very rich. may observe that of the plants dd 
e under the name of Przewalski, only those from his first and 
econd journeys, respectively 1870-73 and 1876, were pee 
id prepared by himself. During the third and fourth journeys, 
Robor le 
the botanical suis dns were made by ovski, his a 
ashore who also during Pevtsov's Verdi to Tibet, 1889-90, 
was charge of the botanical department. He ollected in 
c 
vani parts y the tableland of Raster Talent tan and on the 
Kuen-lun Range, which he crossed in several places to the plateau 
of Tibet. From this expedition, Roborovski brou ught home and 
handed ie to our Botanie Garden 7,000 numbers of plants or 
700 spec Only a few novelties have been described by the 
late Directo Batalin - and by Mr. Winkler. 
borovski's last expedition, 18595 -98. T'urfan, lue Reine. Amdo 
resulted in 1,300 species of plants, not yet examin 
.. * Henderson's plants were worked up in Henderson and Hume's Lahore to 
ie 1873 (pp. 308-346). Bellew’s plants presented no feature of special 
‘interest, and the list of these remains in manu ipt 
