408 
* I spent two days on the Red River, where ls i reti is 
tropical; the banana, tomato, Carica and Tamarind occurring 
everywhere in the wild state. The bizarren of some of e» 
fruits here was very striking. One tree (Dolichandrone Cauda- 
Selina) = long pods (2 to 3 feet) with a dense covering of thick 
rown exactly like the tail of an animal. 
* On the plateau (7,000 — 6,000 feet) between here and the 
Red River I found a curious Pr imula, with radical leaves 
besetting its base like an onion; it wucseaatelly resists the grass 
fires which here are universal, and flowers indifferently level with 
he ground or on a peduncle 6 to 8 inches high. 
“Immense evegreen oaks occurred in the mounitain forest. 
“The most interesting part of the trip was the aborigines. In 
the State, 20 miles by 20 miles, ruled over by the chief, not 
including Chinese settlers, I met with seven distinct races, i.e., 
distinct physiognomy, speaking mutually unintelligible languages, 
living apart, never intermarrying, and with different customs an 
ress. 
“ Their languages, of which I collected short vocabularies, fall 
into three divisions, Shan, Miao-tze and Lolo, all of the Chinese 
type, monosyllabic, non-inflectional. I found ‘the Lolo writing to 
My in daily use. It is apparently derived from ancient Chinese, 
y 2,000 years ago, and I have little doubt is the remnant of a 
highly civilised State. If my information is to be trusted, books 
e ioe interest will be found still existing in MS. in this 
E "real red ‘deer. bears large and small, occur in the mountain 
forests, the smaller bears leaving scratch marks on the trees, in 
which they build nests to sleep in. 
"Iba Ren id, I hope, the seeds of a friendship with the chief, 
and hop o gain much t thereby, 7.¢., an intimacy with the abori- 
singe: Thich | is a difficult matter indeed. 
“April 30, 1897. TEM own collection has already attained gigantic 
proportions. I hav mbered and labelled 660 distinct species, 
without making a porte ble gap in the immense pile of bundles 
of dried plants. I almost anticipate 3,000 species in this year's 
collection, t.e., the year finishing on Ist July. My muleteer is 
doing good work, being constantly on the road ; and I myself am 
doing everything hii. » nois of r4 miles round Mengtse 
which includes mountain 7,000 feet altitude. 
* Franchet, I believe, pt palavai s species from Western 
Yunnan to be in number, Both our collections will have at 
least 5,000 species, and I venture to predict that Yunnan, when 
thoroughly explored (say in the 20th century) will be found to 
have 10,000 species of plants (phanerogams and ferns with their — 
allies 
“The Rhododendrons have been very captivating. They vary 
in size from gigantic trees to the tiniest shrubs. The most 
striking one is apparently confined to a mountain peak north of 
here, some 20 miles. It has Moy oval leaves, about 12 inches 
long by eight inches broad, bro n the under surface, and the 
flowers are a delicate Grii saloa, quite large and very 
numerous, 
