73° 



GA RDENERS* MA GA ZINE. 



November i 2< ^ 



Flora of Yunnan. 



From a most interesting letter sent by Dr. Augustine Henry, a gentleman who 

 has done wonders for ' botanical ?cieace in China, to Mr. T. W. Thisslton-Dyer, 

 director of the Royal Gardens, Hew, and published in the current issue of the 

 A'ew Bulletin, we make the following extracts. 



I left Mengtze in the end of January with a caravan of mules, some forty, 

 carrying stores, &c. I had three mule-loads, e.g., of silver. The journey here 

 took eighteen days, rather easy stages. The country passed through was very 

 varied. I was m good spirits, rode nearly all the way, and enjoyed the trip very 

 much. I crossed three large rivers en route by pontoon and suspension bridges, 

 the latter very well made, of iron rods joined by rings at the ends the best 

 specimens I have seen of Chinese blacksmith's work. At these river crossings we 

 reached low levels, about 1,800 feet above the sea, and came into tropical vegeta- 

 tion, which I never find at all interesting. At Yuenchiang, on the Red River 

 the ugly-looking shrub Calotropis gigantea was in flower, and there was a great 

 display of the tree-cotton, Bombax, in flower, without any leaves, looking like an 

 artificial candelabrum affair more than a living tree. These and some areca palms 

 were the only things of note. At the higher levels vegetation was at a dead point 

 and I collected very little, one or two species of clematis, two rhododendrons : 

 the very curious Scolopendrium Delavayi, which I had never seen before, I found 

 one day on a shady bank where I stopped for tiffin. I also found, at the same 

 place, two plants of Abutilon sinense, which had been sent by me from Ichang, 

 and an Antrophyum, which may be new. I also came across Lonicera Bournei 

 in flower ; it is of no value as an ornamental plant. There was very little forest 

 until after Talang, when we passed one or two days through almost continuous 

 pine forest, varied here and there by little woods of evergreen oaks. Here 

 rather to my surprise, I learned that the peacock exists in the wild state, and it 

 is quite common in the forest south of Szmiao. These pine forests had not a 

 plant in flower amorgst them. I noticed, however, two little woods made up of 

 an Abies, new to me, but I only found one cone. However, I am not pretend- 

 ing now to give any account of the trip botanically, as it would require too much 

 time to get my notes in order at the moment. On the eighteen days I may have 

 collected about thirty plants in flower. At one or two places I might have done 

 a lot of collecting if I could have stayed for a day or two, but I was travelling on 

 official business, and could not tarry. 



Szemao is the end of China. To the south is Chienhung, a collection of little 

 bhan btates, dependent on China at the moment, as Britain didn't claim them on 

 taking Burma, The Yunnan plateau is still here and goes on south, if one can 

 caH a plateau a collection of mountains rising to 6,000 feet, with intervening 

 valleys averaging 4,000 to 5,000 feet, occasionally widening out into plains of a lew 

 miles in width and length. The mountains are being colonised jby Lolos and 

 Chinese, while the valleys are in the hands of the Shans, who live by cultivating 

 rice. They are a lazy and immoral people. In the Shan States south and east of 

 bzemao there is a good deal of cultivation of tea, the so-called P'u-erh tea, con- 

 cerning which you have published in the A'ew Bulletin (1889, PP- 1 18-120 

 139 142) a lot of information, mainly gathered by Bourne on his trip here some 



?if\ rS ^ 0 ' Thl - S tea IS L sent to a11 ?* ns of China and to T »bet. I have an idea 

 hat this region is, perhaps, the site of the earliest cultivation of the tea plant : bat 



this section of country was until modern times a Shan principality, and China only 

 extended earlier as far south as the Red River. . 1 



Tnere is a good deal of wooded country at no great distance from Szemao, 

 and the mountains run up to nearly 6,000 feet, but there is an absence of the 

 sharp and precipitous kind of mountain and valley, and the flora in consequence 

 is very umform and not nearly so int:iesting as Mengtze nor so rich ia species. 

 Hills clad with pine and oak are almost barren in interesting plants, and I have 

 "? \i° m u .° n ■ an ? r of lt those dark ^vines and steep wooded cliffs which are the joy 



£f t ni u co " ect ? r - J her e is a great absence (perhaps the autumn will 

 make a better show) si far of ferns and herbaceous plants. What one collects is 

 mainly trees and shrubs and climbers. There is a fair number of epiphytic 

 orcnias. 1 he common plants are not the common plants of Mengtz:, in fact the 

 two floras are very different. Szemao will possibly turn out very like the Shan 

 country where Sir Henry Collett collected, and Indian forms not hitherto recorded 

 from China are frequent enough. The commonest tree, after the pine and the 



w!n£v" S 5 ( ° ? hlch there are P erha P s ten) and Castanopsis, is Schima 

 Sf„ ; ♦ 1"? 7^°' five laurin3C > a Halesia, a Eugenia, Itea macrophylla, 

 Mehosma, two rhododendrons, a tree Callicarpa, seven or eight species of ficus, 

 a magnolia, to mention the first which come to my mind. Rubus is represented 

 «L ^f?' one new t0 me ' and in China one always expects to meet a new 

 and very distinct rubus after travelling twenty miles in any mountainous part. 

 Kuous ellipticus appears in its ordinary form in the forests with large soft-pointed 

 i* 11 k T a"1 Men e tze t0 h ere and to Talifu a very distinct variety occurs, with 

 «n fi r ? unded -° ff leaflets, and this variety occurs in the open country, 



on poor, bad soil, m dry, barren, exposed places. It is quite evidently a case of 

 adaptation. I he variety has rather pleasant, yellow, raspberry fruit, producid in 

 great prolusion, and I think it might be of service to gardeners in places where 

 iney wanted to grow raspberries on very bad soil in dry, arid climates. In the dry 



nIS «. ?n WOO T a Cycas occurs > w5th a stem two 01 three feet h 'g h » but ifc has 

 Sin^? Howered - . Th «e is also a fern in the same locality, which I have not 

 seen with spores, which has precisely the same habit as the cycas. The leaves of 



\h££Z S ° L th ^\ can st and, I should think, any amount of drought, and 

 MphS ne , c . essar y here > M , h ttle or no rain falls during more than half the year. At 

 S£? ™«tone was the prevailing rock ; here it is a red sandstone, and this 



33T« ; part for , the P°° rer flora - I have always found limestone to be 



HSfr« L° lnterest i n g plants than any other kind of rock. One curious thing 

 ihe l^! ^^ 1 M at . Men gt*e, »>, the occurrence of two or three species of 

 imp TK g S m P rec * eI y the same locality and often flowering at the same 

 flowerim, t£ fvf ° £ llmbM »8 l°niceras, e.g., here, which are to be met with 

 some i ? i er - * ° n t- °J the rhododendrons is very lovely ; it is a bush 

 flower \ZZ C fee - n ,gh / The flo *« buds are a delicate red, and the 

 three oi fal^nT™ 8 J? flushed w "h pink ; the pink disappears, and the flower, 



oX^or QC 0 f "^Ss^srs p r^ except for • ff of y ^!! ow 



wise nurp u h;,., 1 pp p . • Tms d ash of yellow on one petal of an other- 

 mse « ve Lt° T ° CCUrS m other s P- cie s of rhododendron. I have not seen 

 candidum looks i if T 8 ' gantea ' 1 believe, occurs. The common Melastoma 

 difference between this T at a distance > and is almost everywhere. The 



sub-tropical anri f and a rose ex P«sses exactly the difference between 

 much ^ t S ti £r^ f . ,, *8 etat ^ The latter is in some mysterious way 



other day mTn^ce S^hf^^ t0 the eve ' 1 was W ke P leased to read the 

 flowers It docs see Saturday Review a savage invective against florists' 



them into monstrosities whh^i the si »ply beautiful flowers by converting 

 experiments the cresting 2 appendages, &c. Of course, as scientific 



■ecount of ^ctf^lZ^J"^ a11 ri g ht and interesting, and your 



The woods near Szemao^eTS TSt**^* , U» I i S?SP3\2** I ™.%a r^ugh Crawford, Lady Oporto. Ta 



ao are lull of birds, and the notes are exquisite, and to Charles of Denmark, and many others give a wide scope for selection. 



be heard in perfection in these days of showery weather • 

 begun. When the sun gets out the cicadas start such a' Sel r £T y SeaSOn has 

 nothing else. I am afraid there will be no chance here oSfinl ^ TS** hea ' 

 Bamboos of that character do occur in the higher ranges nf v,?T I bamboos, 

 to go there at the time when they are in seed', oncTeve^lix^S tor? ° i$ 

 say. I am sorry about the non-success of the lily bulbs • but vnnV, Lm P p se 

 seeds of the species. I am afraid there will be little here of. k a 6 received 

 there are a few things of which I shall try to send 7ee£ ^ later U*l but 

 sending seeds of orchids? Yesterday I came across a verv 'f worth while 

 orchidfwith tiny flowers (half-inch) like beetles. I also found K ^ tenestriaI 

 a little undershrub, about six to eight inches high with ninnaHfiS 1 Same phce 

 long (three inches) cylindric-tubed: rotate-LbfJ,' XTwis ^ 

 curious Solanacea, but I am not certain, as I have not examined' the fwl! 1S a 

 fully R would be rather pretty in cultivation. These ] Tfoundon 

 which I stumbled against for the first time. There are also two little n.ile x. 

 which I hope to get in fruit later on. Has B.rrn^X^Z^Z^ 

 species, with you ? There is a species here and at Menetze ocmrrin^ • ' y 

 grassy places at high elevations, „d the flowers, deep M^kS^hT 

 are very curious, and a number of p ants massed together would be pretty enough 

 It is a representative of a very small family, and I do not understand what tefck 

 the flowers are up to in their peculiar shape. In many of the Mengtze and 

 Szemao trees and shrubs the flowers occur on the branches below the leave. anH 

 not on the peripheral surface of the tree, as in ordinary cases. Many lianas 

 have this peculiarity. These are all forest plants, and I think the explanation is 

 that in forests there are two surfaces open to insect visitors, the top of the foreS 

 and the bottom. Some trees and shrubs and climbers can't get to the top so thev 

 have their flowers at the bottom. But of course this explanation is only a euess 

 There is no time for me to make any observations of the kind necessary : if one 

 could spend s,ix months on end in a forest one could observe, measure &c The 

 Mucuna sempervirens of Ichang was a splendid example of this peculiarity 'There 

 was in one specimen a dense wall of foliage climbing over trees, interlaced with 

 them, &c, nearly 200 ft. by 100 ft., while the main trunk of the climb»r close 

 to the ground was covered with flowers which were easily visited by thousands 

 of insects of all kinds. There is quite a little group of shrubs which occur on the 

 banks of rivers (and often in beds of streamlets) that overflow. These shrubs are 

 submerged often, and are not hurt. These fluviatile shrubs have a certain facies 

 very difficult to describe There must be thirty or forty species of them in the 

 Yunnan river valleys. These shrubs don't occur elsewhere than on binks or in 

 the beds of streams. The last one I have found is a very fine species of Ficus. 

 This class of shrub would be a nice enough problem for someone to work out. 



I hope you will try and get a young Cambridge or Oxford botanist to come to 

 this part of the world, do some naturalist work, and collect seeds and live plants 

 for cultivation. China is a very easy country to travel in, and expenses of 

 travelling are not heavy. The mountainous regions of Yunnan and Szechwan are 

 very healthy besides. With regard to San-ch'i (the species of Aralia § Panax), the 

 medicinal plant of which I have sent your herbarium specimens and seeds, I will 

 try and send a note on it for the Bulletin by next mail. It would be a favourable 

 opportunity, if one of the staff had time, to go through the section and make a 

 little synopsis of it. It includes the American ginseng plant, Corean ginseng, 

 and two or three other species and I found some forms of Ichang which were not 

 worked out. The forms seem to run into each other in a puzzling way. It is 

 very curious that the Chinese should have selected two forms— one in the extreme 

 north of the empire (Manchuria and Corea), the other in the south, near Mengtze 

 —as two most powerful and famous drugs. There is something peculiar about the 

 history of certain drugs which European doctors consider useless. Take sarsa- 

 parilla and china-root, species of smilax, much believed in by native American 

 races and by the Chinese. With regard to benzoin, it is not known here ; but our 

 Consul will probably take a trip by and bye down into Siam, and I will try and 

 induce him to make inquiries for the tree. Have you tried writing on the subject 

 to the British Consul at Chiengmai in Siam ? The Yunnan plateau is apparently 

 continued into the Shan States, and teak, b-nzoin, &c, are probably confined to 

 tne lower levels lying south. I have some specimens— only leaves— of the tree 

 which produces the very valuable cinnamon of the Laos, but I am afraid they will 

 n °t help much in clearing up the species. They were brought to Mengtze by a 

 pedlar after I had left the place. I have said nothing in my letter about recent 

 events in China, but they are very important. It is impossible to believe that 

 China will remain hopelessly stagnant, and that she will make no effort to cope 

 with these disastrous times. The Chinese are just as clever as the Japanese ; they 

 are wonderfully homogeneous; there are no class or race hatreds as in India. 

 Waking up is slow, very slow, but it must come. In such places as this letters 

 are esteemed more than gold, more than tobacco— they are the only little joys we 



it' -j 1S r ery hard t0 live in such P laces as this ' and we onl y g° throu S h 11 

 by the aid of letters and a certain doggedness which is acquired by practice. 



Russian officers in similar stations in Siberia commit suicide at the rate of five per 

 cent, annually, I have b:en told 



beautiful 



waasia cory m do sa. — I was delighted to see a good plant of this Deauuiu. 

 yellow-flowering greenhouse plant in blojm the other day, and to my mind we 

 have nothing like it so easy to cultivate, or producing such bright flowers in the 

 autumn. Why is it we lose all these good old stove and greenhouse plants, 

 cannot something be done to bring these old favourites into prominence again 



Some Recent Yellow 



years 



For 



beautiful 

 past two 

 ay which 

 rm and 



are the best, individual taste a'oae must be the guide, - — , 



beautv combined I cannot help awarding the palm to Mrs. W. Mease, ana 

 next to that comes O T w^il„ t™*>c ,w™>r Miss Marv Undernay 



G. J. Warren, several tones deeper. Miss Mary Undern 



is a lovely pale yellow of great purity, and, of course, Edith Tabor and bj 

 Curtis will need no words of praise to commend them. Le Grand Dragon is 

 beautiful shade of deen nn \A^ anH •« a imp Taoanese. Mrs. fcrne* 



Ella 

 • 



yell 



Bevan. Urge and incurving i M- Fatzer, General Paquie, a lovely 

 - retaire Rivoire pale canary ; T^m^ji^J^ 



comprises M. Massange 



Princess 



