1140 
Mr. F. C. Reimer writes from Peking, China. Sep- 
tember 26, 1917: "At last, I am in China, arriving 
here somewhat later than I had first planned. This 
is due to the fact that the work in Japan and Korea 
required more time than I had anticipated. For this 
reason it has been necessary to utilize every hour 
and to push the work with great vigor in order to get 
to Peking before it was too late for the early matur-- 
ing species. As a result, all my correspondence has 
.been neglected. 
"In Japan, I visited the northeastern, southern 
and central regions. In Korea, the central, south- 
western, and northeastern sections, and in Manchuria, 
the central part, were studied. The fruit in central 
and northern Japan was extremely light this year, which 
makes the results obtained less satisfactory. The 
wild pear trees of northern Korea and central Man- 
churia have practically no fruit this year. In all 
cases this poor crop is attributed to the remarkable 
drought last spring. 
"I found no pure Pyrus ussuriensis in Japan, but 
other Interesting types. I found P. ealleryana in southern 
Japan and many trees of it in central and southern 
Korea. The trees of this species, especially in Korea, 
are usually mere bushes, owing to the fact that the 
trees are continually cut off for fuel. As a result, 
these trees seldom get large enough to bear large 
quantities of fruit. However, I found some fine, large 
trees of this species in southern Japan, bearing good 
good crops of fruit. Wherever the trees are permitted 
to grow to any size in Korea they bear fine crops of 
fruit. 
"P. ussuriensis is quite abundant in some places in 
the mountains of central Manchuria, but very little 
fruit could be found there. Tomorrow, I start for the 
Shinglungshan region, northeast of Peking, where I 
hope to see many trees of P. ussuriensis, and I also hope 
much fruit. This trip will require about two weeks. 
Mr. Meyer is in central China now, collecting and 
studying P. ealleryana. I have not seen him yet, but will 
go down there later. 
"Large areas in eastern China are now flooded 
and the railroad system south of Peking is demoralized 
and will be for weeks to come. This is very unfortu- 
nate as it will seriously interfere with my work." 
