6? 
I did not come to talk a"bout it either; now 
however, in these serious times, grave thoughts 
come up from time to time. 
On June ?3, I917, from Hankow, Mr. Meyer wrote in part as 
follows to Mr. Stuntz: 
I studied the leaflet on the genus -AmyKdalus 
by Mr. Ricker and I am not satisfied with it. A. 
dehiscens is a synonym of A. tangutica ; the last 
name is not even given, though I sent in many 
seeds of it. Why is A. davidiana left out, v/hile 
a variety of it has "been listed? A. persica potan - 
ini does not exist; A. potanini is""quite distinct 
from a peach. My material will prove it, if it 
still exists. A. petzoldii does not exist; it 
simply is Prunus triloba . 
V/hat is the real difference between an Amyg - 
dal us and a Prunu s? I had talks about this problem 
with Messrs. Rehder and Wilson at the Arnold Ar- 
boretum but we all agreed that Amygdalus , Prunus , 
and Cera s us flow into each other thru intermediate 
forms. Should Mr. Ricker have any publication on 
this subject I'll be pleased to receive it. 
As regards sending in Chinese characters 
with the material I have collected, I'll try to 
do. Y/ho is there in our Office who can compare 
them with those in Giles' Dictionary? As re- 
gards Anglicizing of Chinese characters, you 
knov/ that it can only be done partly and then 
Giles gives only Mandarin dialect while for in- 
stance here in Hupeh the pronunciation is quite 
different in many cases. For instance, the 
character for green is pronounced in Peking as 
"111"; here in Hupeh it is pronounced "loh". 
"Beechi" of Peking becomes "Peechi " here ( Ble - 
ocharis tuberosa ) . Nov/, are we going to give 
Peking names to Hupeh and Hunan products? We 
ought to have had a conference about this, like 
we ought to have had about so many a thing. 
No, Mr. Rehder cannot identify these Chinese 
pears from my fotos alone; it will assist him, 
but - very much work remains to be done on these 
pears here in China. 
As regards my future exploration trips here 
in this land, who will be able to predict them? 
The world is in such a terrible state of chaos 
that anything may happen, even that what was 
least expected. 
December 31, 1917. 
