A HUNTER OF PLANTS 



59 



MEYER S FELLOW-INMATES OE AN INN IN CHINESE TURKESTAN 



"This is the house where we stopped for the night. The three Kirghiz women were 

 much interested in the photographic apparatus and wanted their pictures taken. A Dsun Gan, 

 the host, did not know exactly what to think of such an instrument. We were twelve people 

 in this house, representing six different nationalities." — From one of Meyer's letters. 



In addition to the actual introduction 

 of seeds and plants, Meyer has rendered 

 great service to our horticulture by show- 

 ing us what the Chinese have done to im- 

 prove their native fruits. They have de- 

 veloped their native persimmon from 

 wild, inedible forms to varieties four 

 inches in diameter and delicious as fruits 

 can be ; their native hawthorns they have 

 made as large as small crab-apples, with 

 an excellent flavor and texture all their 

 own, suiting them peculiarly for preserv- 

 ing, and out of the native jujube, or 

 Ts'ao, they have evolved scores of varie- 

 ties, some of which are as large as apri- 

 cots and with a flavor which puts them 

 when candied into the class with the Per- 

 sian date (see pages 68, 69, 72. and 74). 



HE DISCOVERED METHODS AS WELL AS 

 PLANTS 



Our horticulturists can be proud of 

 what they have done for many plants, 

 but they have not yet begun to improve 



the native papaw, which is the largest 

 wild fruit growing within the confines of 

 the United States ; nor have they selected 

 our own large-fruited hawthorns, of 

 which we have many more varieties than 

 the Chinese. 



While Meyer's travels were not in the 

 main in what a geographer would call un- 

 mapped regions ; while he made no geo- 

 graphic discoveries, his observations on 

 the plants which the people use and their 

 manner of using them constitute a real 

 contribution to our knowledge of the 

 foreign countries through which he trav- 

 eled. 



His first expedition in the years 1905- 

 8 was into North China, Manchuria, and 

 northern Korea; his second, in 1900-11. 

 throusrh the Caucasus. Russian Turkes- 

 tan, Chinese Turkestan, and Siberia ; his 

 third, in 1912-15. through northwestern 

 China into the Kansu Province to the bor- 

 ders of Tibet, and his last expedition in 

 search of plants began in 1916. when he 



