64 
Should anything of importance happen, please 
keep me advised, 
Mr. Stuntz replied to this letter on July 31. 1917, as fol- 
lov/s; 
In reply to your letter of June ?3, I will 
try to answer some of your queries. 
Mr. Ricker's leaflet on Amygdalus was not in 
any way an fifctempt to study the genus, "but 
simply aimed at bringing together as Amypdalu s 
spp. the numerous Prunu s spp. which have teen 
placed in the section ■^Mnygdalus of that great 
genus. I do not believe that it is going to be 
possible to draw any definite line between Amyg- 
dalus and Prunus, yet it is convenient for de- 
partmental purposes to consider the plum and 
the peach as belonging to distinct genera, or 
at least what I call "horticultural genera". Tn 
other words, for horticultural purposes it is 
convenient to consider these plants as not con- 
generic. In view of his method of handling the 
genus, Kicker is of course warranted in leaving 
out Davidiana. As it was based entirely on 
the literature of the genera and not on plants, 
I suppose that he v/as v/arranted in including 
certain doubtful species. 
The Chinese characters as you send them in 
v/ill be checked with Giles' Dictionary by myself 
in accordance with the suggestions made by Mr. 
Swingle. He believes that while the native form 
of the name is desirable, yet the local name is 
so frequently a mere variation of the Mandarin 
name widely known throughout China that the 
Mandarin name based on the characters should be 
the one used. There is no doubt that there is 
considerable variation betv/een the Mandarin and 
Cantonese, - for instance, the"Haak yip" variety 
of litchi is entirely distinct in sound at least 
from the "Hei yeh", which is the Mandarin for 
the same name. I believe that the best thing 
for us to do would be to use the Mandarin name 
with the local form of the name in parenthesis 
thereafter. For instance, "Hei yeh" with "Haak 
yip" in parenthesis, v/ith the name of the province 
added vrtiere the local f oi'm is used. A number of 
inventories have gone to press with simply the 
Mandarin form of name except v/hen the colloquial 
form is widely different from it, in which case 
both are given. 
December 31, 191?. 
