WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 



659 



country, during the winter months, is nothing but one huge area covered 

 with Poppy : and in March a more gorgeous and dazzling sight cannot be 

 imagined. 



Whilst not defending the use of the drug, I would like to say that the 

 vice is not nearly so bad as it is represented to be. The opium craze in 

 China to-day is not nearly as bad as the drink craze in this country. 



Kiating is prettily situated at the point where the Min and Tung 

 rivers unite. It boasts some 30,000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by low, 

 well-wooded hills. It is the centre of a large silk industry, and the home 

 of the white-wax industry. The latter substance is of peculiar interest. 

 It is deposited by a species of scale insect — Coccus Pela — on the common 

 Chinese Ash (Fraxinus chinensis). The insect is bred on Ligustrum 

 lucidum, chiefly in the Chien-Chang Valley — a district 100 miles to the 

 south-west of Kiating. The wax is used for making candles, but, owing 

 to the increased consumption of foreign candles and kerosene oil, the 

 demand grows less every year. Kiating is one of the best points from 

 which to reach the mountains of the far West. These begin one day's 

 journey west of the city, and from there until the plains of India are 

 reached there is nothing in the nature of level ground below 8,000 

 or 10,000 feet. Tatien-lu,« on the Tibetan borderland, is fourteen days 

 distant over a very hard and difficult road. The whole country west of 

 Kiating is simply one vast sea of stupendous mountains. Tatien-lu is 

 surrounded by a snow-clad range. Some of the peaks of this range have 

 been measured by Indian surveyors, the following being the heights of four 

 of these giants : 20,000 feet, 21,000 feet, 24,900 feet, and 25,592 feet. 

 When properly surveyed it is highly probable that peaks will be found 

 equalling in height the highest peaks of the Himalaya. 



The flora of this wild region is extraordinarily and peculiarly rich, and 

 can only be compared with that of the Sikkim Himalaya. Being several 

 degrees of latitude north, the species are more suited to our own clime. 

 As an illustration of the peculiar richness of the flora, I might mention 

 that, in the ascent of one mountain (Mount Omi), I gathered specimens 

 belonging to eight new and monotypic genera — viz., Davidia involucrata, 

 Carrierea calycina, Tapiscia sinensis, Toricellia angulata, Tetracentron 

 sinense, Eucommia ulmoides, Emmenopterys Henryi, and Camptotlieca 

 acuminata. This same mountain is very rich in ferns ; in one day I 

 collected over seventy species. 



In the mountains of Western China between 1,000 feet and 5,000 feet, 

 the natural order Laurinea forms fully 75 per cent, of the arborescent 

 vegetation, if we omit the common lowland conifers : Finns Massoniana, 

 Cupressus funebris, and Cunninghamia sinensis. 



The Laurinene zone is composed chiefly of evergreens, and the genera 

 Machilus, Lindera, and Litsea run riot in species. Many of these constitute 

 handsome and valuable timber trees. From 5,000 feet to 10,000 feet the 

 mountains, in the more inaccessible parts of these wilds, are clad with 

 magnificent coniferous forests. Several species of Picea and Pinus, with 

 Abies Fargesii, Tsuga chinensis, and Larix Potanini, form the chief con- 

 stituents. Abies Fargesii is possibly the commonest of all conifers in 

 these regions, reaching its largest size, about 10,000 feet. It is a very 

 handsome Siiver-Fir with very dark bluish-black cones. Unfortunately its 



