SOME NEW TREES AND SHRUBS OF WESTERN CHINA, 217 



SOME NEW TREES AND SHRUBS 

 OF WESTERN CHINA. 



Western China is the back of the Himalayas. 

 This great chain presents its steep face as a 

 wall to India ; its sloping side descends by suc- 

 cessive terraces through Tibet, Yunnan, and 

 Szechuan, to sink at Ichang into the great 

 plain, which is there not a hundred feet above 

 sea level. No such deeply-cut-up region exists 

 elsewhere on the earth, hence the diversity of 

 its plants, which are all the more interesting 

 in that most of them can be grown in the open 

 air in Britain. 



It I were asked what were the most beau- 

 tiful plants that I have seen, I should answer : 

 Amongst trees, Paulownia Fortune}, which in 

 Yunnan ravishes the eye with its myriads of 

 violet Foxglove flowers, and the new species 

 orvariety of Rhodoleia, agiant tree in thegreat 

 forests south of the Red River. Yet there are 

 several species of Rhododendron trees which 

 are perhaps more lovely than these. Of shrubs 

 one may mention Lonicera Hildebrandiana, 

 many new Rhododendrons and Azaleas, and 

 Ilex Pernyi. Of the great climbers there are 

 Rosa gigantea, the wild forms of the Rosa Bank- 

 sice and Rosa indica, and a certain Porana, 

 which covers the barren rocks with a mass of 

 flowers shining with metallic bluish-grey lus- 

 tre. I prefer amongst herbs some of the Cyr- 

 tandracea?, of which there are now perhaps a 

 hundred species known from China ; these 

 have a delicate beauty, and recall the beautiful 

 spots where they grow under the waterfalls in 

 the dark recesses of the mountain forests. Of 

 showy plants there comes to my mind the tall 

 Gentian found in a deep ravine north of the 

 gorges, which has been named Gentianavenosa. 

 It has the port of a Lily, is 6 feet high, and 

 bears ten or more large white flowers (they 

 are 3 inches in diameter) spotted with green. 

 Many useful plants are also found, as Eucommia 

 ulmoides,2. tree which has gutta-percha in every 

 part of it ; break bark or leaf or fruit and draw 

 the parts asunder, they are held together by a 

 delicate film of silvery threads of gutta. 



One of the prettiest shrubs in the Ichang 

 glens is Itea ilictfolia, which has leaves like yet 

 not the same as the common Holly, and 

 racemes of white flowers 6 inches long. It is 



only far inland in the higher mountains that 

 the gem of Hollies, Ilex Pernyi, is met with. 

 It has prickly small leaves, scarce three-quar- 

 ters of an inch long, and deep red berries. The 

 non-prickly leaved Hollies around Ichang are 

 legion ; many of them are beautiful, as they 

 excel in gloss of leaf. One of these, Ilex coral- 

 Una (Franchet), is used by the poorer natives 

 as a substitute for tea. In a wood of two or 

 three acres in extent, behind some village in 

 Yunnan, one can easily find more species of 

 trees than occur in all Europe. Occasionally 

 there are uniform forests at lower levels, made 

 up of Pinus densiflora or Pinus massoniana, or of 

 certain evergreen Oaks, or in Yunnan of Alnus 

 nepalensis. These uniform forests are never of 

 great extent and are uninteresting as regards 

 variety ; they are too open, and the sunlight 

 prevents the growth of the many shrubs and 

 herbs, which only thrive in deep shade. In the 

 mixed forests one may find anything. In open 

 glades rather high up Lilium giganteum may 

 be spied miles away across the valley with its 

 gorgeous turret of flowers. At still higher ele- 

 vations and in complete shade in the moun- 

 tains to the north I met with noble specimens 

 of Rheum officinale (Baillon), the plant from 

 which a considerable part of the Rhubarb of 

 commerce is obtained. This is a glorious plant, 

 having a remarkable rhizome 3 or 4 feet long, 

 with a bright red cortex, but golden-yellow 

 interiorly. Lower down in a dark wood we 

 discovered, in one spot only, a few specimens 

 of Dicentra macrantha, a plant much to be de- 

 sired in cultivation. It grew with such plants 

 as Podophyllum versipelle and Caulophyllum ro- 

 bustum. In an exceedingly dark mountain fo- 

 rest in Fang district in Hupeh, at 7,000 feet 

 elevation, I found Diphylleia cymosa (Michx.), 

 an American plant, astonishing to meet with 

 in Central China. 



It would be impossible to name all the trees 

 of the mixed forest ; many of my specimens are 

 as yet undetermined. Of well-known genera, 

 Quercus, Carpinus, Fraxinus, and Acer have nu- 

 merous species. There is a new Beech with 

 five kinds of Linden, four of these being new 

 species. It was in sandals made of their bark 

 that I used to do my climbing. Some of the 

 new genera are worth noticing,^., Dipteronia, 

 a very common tree, which is the only close ally 



