RECENTLY INTRODUCED TREES &c. FROM CENTRAL CHINA. 57 



RECENTLY INTRODUCED TREES, SHRUBS, &c. FROM 

 CENTRAL CHINA. 



By James H. Veitch, F.L.S. &c. 



In the spring of 1899 Sir William Thiselton-Dyer of Kew was kind 

 enough to select a young man from the staff of the Royal Gardens who 

 possessed, as far as could be judged, the necessary qualifications for 

 undertaking a prolonged journey in certain districts of China. 



The selection has proved a happy one, and the success of the venture 

 so much beyond expectation that I have felt justified in despatching the 

 young man in question (Mr. E. H. Wilson) on another trip to the 

 Chinese-Tibetan frontier, some thousand miles further inland than he 

 has been before. 



In order that Wilson might be fully equipped for obtaining the best 

 results from the neighbourhood he first visited — Ichang in the Yangtsze 

 valley and Western Hupeh generally — and be conversant with the most 

 striking of the trees and shrubs known to be in that district, some months 

 were devoted to his visiting Professor Sargent in Boston and to finding 

 Dr. Henry, at that time in the Chinese Customs service, and stationed at 

 Sczemao in Yunnan, on the borders of Tonkin. 



The necessity of consulting Dr. Henry and benefiting by his unrivalled 

 knowledge of Chinese trees and shrubs — a knowledge freely imparted to 

 Wilson — was so obvious that a year was devoted to this alone. 



The journey to Sczemao via Tonkin proved arduous, and at one time 

 the chance of reaching Dr. Henry by this route seemed hopeless ; but the 

 steadfast purpose of the young Kew student, of which on this as on other 

 occasions he gave ample proof, enabled him to reach his destination. 



After spending some weeks with Dr. Henry, who taught him much, 

 Wilson left for Ichang via Hong Kong and Shanghai, and during the 

 two succeeding years — 1900 and 1901 — sent home great quantities of 

 seed, so carefully prepared that it practically all germinated. 



During the three years that Wilson was absent he carried out his 

 written instructions faithfully, and proved himself possessed of rare 

 energy and an enviable capacity for solid work. His herbarium, 

 numbering some fifteen thousand specimens, is most valuable, and now 

 lies in the leading botanic centres of Europe and America. Photographic 

 reproductions of some of the most striking specimens illustrate this paper, 

 living plants of almost all being in cultivation in our Surrey nursery. 



It is reasonable to suppose the great majority of the trees and shrubs 

 referred to (and many others there is not space to touch on) will prove 

 hardy in the British Isles, common as they are in a temperate zone and 

 at considerable elevations. So far in England two winters and sixteen 

 degrees of frost have permitted valuable tests to be made. 



By far the most important from the horticultural standpoint anions 

 the flowering trees is Davidia involucrata (figs. 11 and 12), a remarkable 



F 



