33° 



.THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



May 



T 



FASCINATING FLORA OF YU 



Those who have closely followed the discovery and introduction of new plants 

 during the past ten years will have, from time to time, admired the keenness of 

 research exhibited by Dr. Augustine Henry, who expends practically all his eisure 



Dr. Henry is a member of the Customs Department, 



Laokai, Tonking. Yunnan is the Chinese 



time in collecting plants 



and his address is Mengtse, pai _ . - . . . , 



province wherein Dr. Henry has made wonderful discoveries of plants, both 

 interesting botanically and useful horticulturally. His immense collections have 



not yet all been determined, but sufficient is known to show that Dr. Henry is 

 not simply a collector, but a botanist of no mean order and a broad-minded 

 naturalist. The richness of the Yunnan flora, with its Himalayan types shading 

 into the purely Chinese, was not suspected until Dr. Henry made serious investi- 

 gations. Some idea of his keen perseverance, the flora itself, and the difficulties 

 under which he labours may be gathered, however, from the following extracts, 

 which we take from a series of letters sent to Kew by him in 1897, and now 

 published in the Kew Bulletin. 



Writing at the end of February, 1897, Dr. Henry says : I have just returned from 

 an exceedingly interesting trip to the Country south of the Red River, in a district 

 ruled over by an hereditary chief, who treated me with great kindness. I reached 

 the great range separating the Red River and Black River basins, densely wooded 

 with large trees (twenty feet in circumference) to near the summit, where they are 

 replaced by thick bamboo jungle, so that the range, which is very long, is only 

 crossable by passes at different points. The altitude is 8,000 to 10,000 feet. At 

 this, the dead point of the year as regards vegetable life, there was not much out 

 in flower, but I secured a magnificent rhodendron, a magnolia (both great trees), 

 three camellias, Stuartia, &c. There was a Daphne (indica ?), a shrub with 

 deliciously scented white flowers, a primula at the summit, Ainslsea, two or three 

 species of clematis, &c. Two or three Araliacsee, shrubs and trees, occur also up 

 to the summit. A very common tree was Oliver's Tetracentron sinense, an 

 enormous tree, but with the wood little esteemed. Its fruit spikes were scattered 

 evervwhere. and its minute seeds had flown awav. 



I spent two days on the Red River, where the vegetation is tropical ; the 

 l>anana, tomato, carica, and tamarind occurring everywhere in the wild state. The 

 bizarreness of some of the fruits here was very striking. One tree (Dolichandrone 

 cauda-felina) has long'pods (two to" three feet) with a dense covering of thick brown 

 hair, exactly like the tail of an animal. On the plateau (7,000 — 6,000 feet) between 

 here and the Red River I found a curious primula, with radical leaves besetting 

 its base like an onion ; it successfully resists the grass fires which here are universal , 

 and flowers indifferently level with the ground or on a peduncle six to eight inches 

 high. Immense evergreen oaks occurred in the mountain forest. The most 

 interesting part of the trip was the aborigines. In the State, twenty miles by 

 twenty miles, ruled over by the chief, not including Chinese settlers, I met with 

 seven distinct races, i.e., distinct physiognomy, speaking mutually unintelligible 

 languages, living apart, never intermarrying, and with different customs and dress. 

 Great red deer, bears large and small, occur in the mountain forests, the smaller 

 bears leaving scratch marks on the trees, in which they build nests to sleep in. I 

 have laid, I hope, the seeds of a friendship with the chief, and hope to gain much 

 thereby, i.e., an intimacy with the aborigines, which is a difficult matter indeed. 



My own collection (April 30) has already attained gigantic proportions, I 

 have numbered and labelled 660 distinct species, without making a perceptible 

 gap in the immense pile of bundles of dried plants. I almost anticipate 3,000 

 species in this year's collection, i.e., the year finishing on July 1. My muleteer 

 is doing good work, being constantly on the road ; and I myself am doing every- 

 thing within a radius of fifteen miles round Mengtse, which includes mountains to 

 7,000 feet altitude. Pranchet, I believe, estimates Delavay's species from Western 

 Yunnan to l>e j,ooo in number. Both our collections will have at least 5,000 

 species, and I venture to predict that Yunnan, when thoroughly explored (say in 

 the twentieth century), will be found to have 10,000 species of plants (phanerogams 

 and ferns with their allies). The rhododendrons have been very captivating. 

 They vary in size from gigantic trees to the tiniest shrubs. The most striking one 

 is apparently confined to a mountain peak north of here, some twenty miles. It 

 has broadly oval leaves, about twelve inches long by eight indies broad, brown on 

 the under surface, and the flowers are a delicate primrose-yellow, quite large 

 and very numerous. The clematis are about twenty to twenty-five species; 

 oaks fifteen ; primulas ten (these have been very disappointing in number, and 

 none is conspicuous in any way). The conifers include Cunninghamia, Crypto- 

 meria, Keteleeria, and three species of Pinus ; one of these is P. Massoniana : 

 another is very remarkable for its perfectly white bark and large cones, with 

 big edible seeds, perhaps allied to P. koraiensis and P. Armandi ; the third I have 

 just discovered. It is one solitary big tree planted on the top of a mountain, over 

 four graves I have not yet secured cones. It is beautifully pyramidal in shape, 



and with delicate, very green foliage, and different from any pine I have seen 

 in China. 



Talking of soap-trees, there are two here, Gleditschia Delavayi, with its 

 enormous pods, some twenty inches long, and Pancoria Delavayi. The latter is 

 an exact imitation of Sapindus Mukorossi. Of course, it differs technically in 

 Mowers and indumentum of the leaves, but no mere non-botanist would dream 

 01 Puttmgthern in different genera. I will send plenty of fruit of both (and 

 seeds). The Leguminosae are very numerous; Desmodium, Lespedeza, and 

 t ueraria running not in number of species. I have secured some very northern 



.fg^s a betula, &c. I am inclined to think that isolation, as in 

 Wn^n Y V multnud \A°us ranges and valleys, must play a great part in the 



TS enlle'T S P ec,es V and the °f ^e flora of this proVince will, 



One nMh™ get at important factors in this evolution 



s^cie, but hoS ^^ S °; Ca L led 'P«£*ere » Ehrctia corytifolia ; it is a distinct 

 Knk [5512 ~° th , C f mmon Ehretia ^crophylla ' if I don't mistake, 

 vegetable So J tZT"* ^ ^l*** with the richness of types in the 



often under a new name Th • ° ne hearS ° f mUSt the Same P^P 1 * 5 



physical characteristics aVe oftS> ^°we!?^Jr?5^ T 



In addition to mv own mil**** . , 

 in Kwangsi province snm, «? \ have received fr <> m Morse, at Lungchow 

 He send, mi Toirnefo nh J^l J"" 1 *"* s P ecies ' Some ^ e ^ uite interesting, 

 plant (Formosa, Mauritius pkVi wh,ch is hitr >erto known only as an oceanic 

 Osteoma •^L.«: J :r ?" U V h, »Ppines. Australia), and it is like th* 



cultivation ? 

 Red River. 



I also sends m7 n «r C * * Y MC Way ' nave you tht latter in 

 Pods ar th Zofr ~ uda f ,ina > * hi <* I found on the 



e most of fruits ; a long tail of some preWstow. 



animal would be near it. What is the meaning nf til* 



~r 4.-. ~ «- rVocQir-iinia conn«« 1 t . S VA ine 



beast 



gin 

 wool. 



ir.d 



running about in the trees. I c^«££ ^ <* 



in hairs of fruit of -Pueraria Thunbergiana. a 



stick on the climbing shrub till they dehisce, and ^d^iV^' r Thc 

 say that I have secured a magnificent Paulownk hu? J* 1, 1 foi W 



Unfortunately, I have not flower 



precocious). 

 Paulownias 

 seems to differ from both ; it 

 according to description. It i 

 that I have ever seen. Seeds of 



are 



have to be collected later 



flowers 



he . two described 

 with it, but i 



tha * P. Fortune 



* n _ S0m 5 



really tokc a doien cnthusMtic tota^ to cope with the work her* ru"^ 

 are only four so for i Lihum Browni (?), a lily with yellow floZ . ^ 

 and a small lily with a solitary pink flower, and L. giSSm S 

 very numerous. But I could go on indefinitely. My nhotoirranWr ~ . 

 has been four months on the way from Haifong ^ 7 ^^SS^ ^ 

 Can you give any suggestions concerning the uses of photography in botL?^ 

 course, I suppose pictures of trees like the Paulownia, iust snoken nf 

 curious fruits, &c, will be useful. ' J P ken of ' P lctTlre$ << 



After relating a little adventure with a leopard, Dr. Henry continues • Wtt 

 regard to seeds, I will do what I can, especially later on, when I shall havJw 



plant- collecting to do in our immediate neighbourhood. But it is really a diffi3 

 matter collecting seeds ; one arrives on the ground too late or too early 1 12 

 e.g., to collect seeds of Gentiana serra and rhodantha, common plants and 55 

 to get a single seed. You may say, why not employ a native ? Ah ! you doZ 

 know the \ unnanese. My muleteer, who collects plants, is the only man I km 

 who could or would do the work, and even he only does about one-tenth of wk 

 I could do if I had his time. The others, Chinese and aborigines, are too lazy i* 

 seed-collecting. I have secured the first aborigine who would venture into for— 

 employment ; no one had any but Chinese before. He is my groom, and is a 

 experiment. The fact is, that if one had nothing else to do, one might omm 

 plans and people for carrying on such work ; but it is difficult for me, as I h* 

 a great deal to do. And yet I doubt if many of my specimens will be collcced 

 again for fifty years, as I have put no small amount of energy into pins of the 

 botanising. The flowers of a certain Zanthoxylum have cost me three visits toot 

 spot and a expenditure of six hours' time. Money is not what is wanted, bat Dae 

 — oceans of time. ^ Nothing astonishes people at home so much as the fact, t rd 

 fact, that in countries like China you cannot do everything with money, 

 is more^ valuable. I can get a good deal of work out of Chinese on a trip wh_ 

 I am with them, but not otherwise. Chinese are very susceptible to wcather-t 

 shower breaks their hearts ; they don't like going into jungle, as thorns mm 

 them and tear their clothes. Now, I do not mind a hundred thorns ; I wait till I 

 have a lot in, then sit down and pick them out. For the Chinese, the root of th 

 matter is an absence of nervous energy. Their industry, so much talked of. b ua 

 real inmost parts of the Empire. They are not exactly lazy, but they do not bot 

 how to begin to work, as compared with a European. And as to their ever serioah 

 fighting or competing in the arts of peace or war with the Anglo Celtic rice, it ■ 

 an idle dream. 



I 



fit are 



out a small expedition, the funds, being provided by a syndicate of, vf, • 

 horticulturist, a private gentleman or two, &c. I estimate /i ,000 would coiir 

 the expenses for two years ; and what I would recommend is that a DM w 

 selected who has just finished his botanical studies at Cambridge. I mean, <k>Mj 

 send a collector, but a gentleman, a student and an enthusiast. The loa 

 would suggest is the mountain range separating Szechwan from Shensi, Of W» 

 abouts, the expedition starting from Ichang in April and covering two * 

 person like me, with daily official work, can do little or nothing. ; 



fA,rnt- ;^ fk« „c i z < i, j;^^^ q( . *-o rrvt tn the hunting frotiB 



There 



are enormous, and when we do get there we are hair worn oui. 4 7^ 

 something uncanny in the way in which herbaceous plants disappear oot* 

 after they have had their gaudy season of flowering, and when the plant : m *** 

 the seeds are green, or the capsules are empty. Such are sorr* «t me dittiff^ 

 My own plant-collecting, since I have been here, is enorm 

 expenditure of muscular force ! It would be strictly parallel 



■ ■ > W — _ • * 1 



that of ak»** 



igland 



mree times a year made hurried trips to tne uarpatmaas a. 

 bank clerk would really in such a way expend less energy. 



Pyrerets. 



I 



— — - y vui m*mm • » ■ www — 



men, which I find very interesting. In a place 



ofthcj* 



is interested in any 



reason why. In a previous letter 1 spoke w 

 this province, and hinted at its possible glacial 



red clar *H 



out of the universal limestone, and what one finds here » * ^ ' | 

 not been disturbed geologically for an immense period, i m :w .^J^ 

 into innumerable valleys and petty plains and isolated peaks ; anu 

 to be the factor which has kept up so many different forms of lite, <£^ m 4 

 started. Another interesting series of questions is to nnd o mw ' ^ ^ ,j 



enormous 



there are m»flT 



occurs in the Red River valley. In this hot steamirjg valley t h« re ^ & 

 ordinary fruits ; nowadays there are scarcely any lame animals, ^jr^ + 



leopards. But there are 



I assume 



that ettr?* 1 * 



people fat* rs \H 



cms Kina nas a meaning, a use, if one couia nna u uu*, — r»7 t \ mt$ b**&Z 

 which enormous and curious animals in former g eol ^ c • 

 Take the question of thorns. I think they do serve Pgff 

 and are not, as regards their preservation, when once aevc r~ 

 of climate and soil changes. 



3* 



I was quite disappointed in the spring flora here. Th 

 rainless, and, except in woods with perennial s P nD S5.*°" 

 country remains almost barren. There is consequen t y V £ 

 which can bear long and sustained drought, and he doofe ^coaMW^ 

 bulbous covering of scaly leaves in the primrose 1 mem ^ g MrJTjf 

 burnt grass hills is, of course, not a dodge . ^—p - 



the drought it sustains. There is one point in conr.tc 

 cultivated Primula sinensis which is not, L think, gene 



