70 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A WHITS-BARKED PINK TREE THREE CENTURIES OED, 

 NEAR PEKING, CHINA 



Funis bungeana, the white-barked pine of central China, as Meyer 

 remarks, is "rather insignificant looking when less than a century 

 old, but trees of 200 or 300 years of age are beautiful and serene 

 enough to worship." Minister Rockhill expressed himself to Meyer 

 several years before his death as wishing that he might rest under a 

 white-barked pine. Thousands of these have been grown and sent 

 out to parks, cemeteries, and private places throughout America. 

 The contrast between the brilliant white bark and the dark-green 

 foliage makes it a most striking landscape tree (see page 76). 



den beans are also grown, mostly for the 

 dry beans, though. 



"Fruits are absolutely unknown. Here 

 and there one sees a wild pear or a wild 

 plum, but the natives do not cultivate any. 



TOBACCO THE FAVORED PLANT OP KOREA 



"A plant of great importance with the 

 Koreans is the tobacco. They give it 



the best place in their 

 fields, as the whole 

 race is addicted to ex- 

 cessive use of the leaf. 

 Some very large- 

 leaved varieties are 

 grown in this country, 

 some of which I have 

 never seen elsewhere. 

 I haven't been able 

 yet to obtain seeds of 

 it, for these people 

 live by the day. They 

 don't have any seeds 

 for a bad year or so — 

 oh, no ; let the day of 

 tomorrow take care 

 of itself! In agricul- 

 tural seeds, too, they 

 sow everything at 

 once, and if some is 

 left, mix it up with 

 other seeds and eat it. 

 The new crops are not 

 ripe yet, so there are 

 no seed to be had." 



THROUGH PRIMEVAL 

 FORESTS IN KOREA 



In going to Hoi- 

 ryong, Korea, Meyer 

 relates that for many 

 days he traveled 

 through primeval for- 

 ests, camping at night 

 in log cabins which 

 had been erected for 

 the accommodation of 

 hunters. 



"These forests are 

 splendid," he writes. 

 "They consist mostly 

 of larches, then fol- 

 low spruces, then 

 pines and lindens, 

 birches, poplars, and 

 gigantic willows, 

 found in patches or as solitary specimens. 

 The willows attain the same enormous 

 size as the conifers — from 100 to 150 

 feet tall. I measured larches that had a 

 diameter of four feet, five feet above the 

 ground, and by counting the annual rings 

 of some of the- felled giants, I found that 

 most of the trees are between 120 and 

 180 years old. 



