60 
It grieves me to hear of the sudden death of 
Miss Reynolds; so much to lire for yet I 
I wish I could hare a talk with you on many 
a subject; I often think that this life I am lead- 
ing here, with its many worries, its "loneliness, 
its lack of contact with people of similar aims 
and thoughts as mine, etc., etc., is perhaps not 
the thing I ought to continue much longer. The 
difficulty is, v/ho will give me solid advice and 
council? 
V/e are just in the midst of the loquat sea- 
son and there is a great lot of variation in size 
and flower of these fruits. I have not found a 
seedless one yet, neither any one with a red 
color, like Mr. Taylor told me to look out for, 
twelve years ago. 
Quite a lot of "Wong tsai" ( Ipomaea aquatica ) 
is on the market; also lots of "Han tsai" ( Amaran - 
thus Ijlittun and A. tricolor ) . The last tastes and 
looks, when 'boiled, very much like spinach. 
Y/e are also having peaches of the honey type 
but so hard and sour that they have to be boiled; 
the Chinese eat them raw and enjoy the crushing 
of the flesh between their teeth. The weather- is 
sultry and rainy these last weeks, and far from 
bracing. My interpreter feels it even more so 
and is by far not as bright as up north. He also 
cannot get along so well with the people here, who 
have no use for northern people and they refuse 
often to give him information. 
Hankow is one of the great coolie towns in 
China, and culture throughout Hupeh is at a very 
low ebb. Thanks to wars, revolutions and long 
periods of isolation, intellect has not been at a 
premiiim and coolie breeding keeps everything dov/n 
to a dead level. The heads of great firms here 
are mostly Cantonese and Ningpo-men, v;ho are 
among theNmost enterprising of all Chinese. 
One question I like to do,- what will Wilson 
Popenoe do v/hen he is through with Guatemala? 
Have you discussed with him the South China problem 
and Indo-China, Siam and Burma? 
Another problem,- has anyone ever attempted to 
cross Prunus aerrulata and P. lannessian a with P. 
avium and others of the Cerasus type? If not, it 
ought to be done, so as to get new hardy types of 
flov/ering cherries. 
T have quite a few fotos still on hand which 
I'll describe, number, and index and send them at 
December 31, 1917. 
