50 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
landscape, which is here, more especially in its upper reaches, of a 
quite special character, owing to grass growing only on the south side 
of the folded downs, and forest only on the northern, with a perfectly 
definite line of cleavage, diversifying the emerald sea of waves, from 
one aspect, with stripes and rims of darkness, while from another a 
dark world of forest alone appears. 
On August 21 I returned alone to Siku for the seed harvest 
while Purdom worked in the Tibetan valleys and highlands. He 
rejoined me at last on September 16, and after our headman had 
successfully returned from Wen Hsien with Primula and Pleione, we 
all adventured back again over the hills to Gahoba and Satanee, 
pleasantly and placidly exploring the Satanee Alps till at last the 
alpine winter came crashing finally down on October 18, and the 
snow-fall drove us back again to sunny, torrid Siku, the change being 
equivalent to that of Torbole or Garda from the Stelvio. From 
Siku we made our final ascent of Thundercrown in quest of Delphinium 
tanguticum, and then Purdom hurried north again for odd jobs in 
the Tibetan Alps, while I remained to finish a few final collections 
at Siku. On October 30 I also bade a last sad farewell to this delicious 
little corner of sunshine, and rode northward to join Purdom at a 
small village nearly opposite J6-ni, whence on November 13, the 
country and the green hills being now all gone brown and sere and 
dead in winter, we all moved up northward over Lotus Mountain 
towards Lanchow, there to spend the dead months, after a well- 
rounded season, in which, after all its storms and stresses, there have 
been only two downright failures to regret — Iris Henry i and Farreria 
sp., neither of which was it possible to attempt. 
The following list is intended to give notice of all the plants of 
which seed has been sent home and distributed. It will include a 
few specially interesting subjects which have not been sent, as well 
as some others which, though sent, have not yet been distributed. 
It is my intention, of course, that all such should in time be shared 
in due proportion ; I had originally hoped that this could have been 
done immediately with all things collected. However, I now find 
that matters often are not so simple as they seem in England. For 
one thing, seed-collecting is an exceedingly gambling game, and often 
a week's hard journey will only yield you perhaps half a dozen seeds 
of some quite common treasure, by the hazard of men or beasts or 
weather-gods scattered already or destroyed. In such cases it is 
obviously best that one practised raiser should deal with these two 
or three priceless vegetable diamonds, and then in due course dis- 
tribute their propagated offspring. Otherwise my friends might 
each have to receive a fraction of a seed ! There are other cases in 
which I am so far reluctant to send out shares of my harvest. For 
in that harvest are bound to be stray, odd, or uncertain things, such 
as I do not wish to burden people with, until myself reassured as to 
their value and distinctness. In especial, late autumn is a season 
for grabbing all one sees ; in such a gleaning there are bound to be 
