889^ 
"Well, I have a few Interesting discoveries to re- 
port, firstly there" are many specimens of Castanea mol- 
lissiina scattered at the bases and on the lower slopes of 
the hills around here, and — these chestnuts are serious- 
ly attacked by the bark-fungus, and In my estimation are 
going to succumb to It these coming years. The chinqua- 
pins, however, which are" very abundant on the higher 
and more sterile hill slopes, seem to ' be immune, at 
least, I did not see any evidences of damage or even of 
attacks. This brings anathe-r Interesting point to my 
mind. I' was told in Nanking that various missionaries at 
Ruling, the great summer resort in central China for mis- 
sionaries, were cutting down their chestnuts, as the tops 
were all dying, due to borers working underneath the bark. 
('Of course this last cause is the most easily explainable 
to laymen). But now this is the point: when chestnuts here 
in eastern central China are only recently being attacked 
seriously then the disease might have come from some other 
locality, like from north China possibly, or this Diaporthe 
parasitica might have become, through mutation or whatever 
else, much more aggressive of late, than in periods gone 
by. What do specialists say on this question? 
"The second of my more important observations are 
that -- hickories occur wild in the mountains near here. 
I bought some samples of nuts In town and was assured- that 
the trees producing them grow wild in the Fung huang shan 
region to the west and southwest from here. I found a 
large tree of a Pecan-like appearance in a densely wooded 
valley on the slopes of the Pan shan, a few hours from 
here to the northeast and within some days I may have 
found the real hickory-nut-tree, which has not been re- 
ported from China up till now. Wilson In his second vol- 
ume 6 f l A Naturalist in China 1 , makes special mention of 
this fact. Chinese here call them hickory-nuts sa ho to and 
sa km meaning 'sand walnut' and 'sand nut'; why, we have 
riot been able to ascertain as yet. I am sending you, by 
separate parcel, a small quantity of these hickory nuts. 
If you see fit, would you kindly ask Professor Sargent's 
opinion regarding them. I am making arrangements with Dr. 
Duncan Main here, to send you some fresh nuts this coming 
autumn. 
Another thing I found on a spur of the Pan shan 
at an elevation of c. a. 1500 ft. a. s. were wild tea- 
bushes in a dense thicket of Hex comuta, Castanea pumila, 
dwarf bamboo, Juniperus sp., etc. On this same spur I found 
wild camphor-trees, wild tallow trees, (Sapium sebiferum) 
lots of wild Diospyros kaki; wild Yang ma,e trees {Myrica 
rubra) , Exochorda grandiflora, Chionanthus retusa, Symplocos sp. , 
