65 
As soon as I can I will try to get the 
list of photographic subjects desired, but it 
is pretty difficult to get the various members 
of the office force together on account of sum- 
mer vacations, field trips, and the general low 
ebb of office affairs. Our force is materially 
reduced by resignations and transfers to other 
offices, the latest transfer being that of Mr. 
H. H. Howell to the Bureau of Foreign and 
Domestic Commerce. 
Although we are having temperatures of 104° 
in the shade here in Washington, I do not envy 
you your v/ork in central China in the slightest, 
as we can at least keep free from contact with 
the conditions which you are finding there. 
On September ?7, 1917, in a letter from Kingmen, Hupeh, Mr. 
Meyer wrote: 
As regards Mr. Swingle's idea that a 
local name is frequently a mere variation 
of the Mandarin one, well, that's a start- 
^ ling viewpoint. I personally know that the 
Mandarin simply is an attempt to render the 
name of a southern product acceptable to the 
tongue of a large number of people who could 
not pronounce the real name. For real southern 
products, such as varieties of lychees and lun- 
gans, I certainly v/ould not give a Mandarin name, 
for they are not known by such names in the lo- 
calities, v/here they grow. . What you ought to 
give in the inventories are the Chinese char- 
acters for the products, that ties them up to 
the country of origin, irrespective of pro- 
nunciation, etc., etc. 
On June ?3 , 191?, from Hankow, Mr. Meyer wrote Mr. Bisset in 
part as follows: 
Getting better stocks for pliims and 
cherries'; yes, that is some probleml For 
what sections of the United States do you 
want them? 
There are many forms of Prunus and 
Cerasus in western China, also in Man- 
churia and Japan; to get seeds, however, 
in quantity , that is the great question. 
It is not alv/ays easy to find a thing like 
the Davidiana peach, which happens to be 
fairly common in and around Peking. 
December 31, 1917. 
