801 
The elevatlpn T found ... them was almost exactly 4000 
feet a. s. I gathered, some fruits, hut they are not quite 
ripe: I am trying; to ripen them • off /however,, so that we 
may obtain at : least a few ripe seeds. As a stock . however 
it has not the value the davidiana peach has, not being as 
vigorous and apparently being attacked by the same pests 
that infest cultivated peaches. This "find" is of great 
interest however, showing that wild ; peaches exist much 
nearer the coast .than we suspected and that the peach nat- 
urally is a native of semi-arid regions. Whether China is 
the real home or- whether it is only one of the homes pf 
the peach is a question we cannot solve as yet. Will it 
prove to be that the peach occurs also in Persia and Af- 
ghanistan, like the walnut, which is found wild in the 
Caucasus, Persia, Western China and N. E-. China? 
There are some more plants occurring here in North 
Eastern China, which .are found also on > the • other side of 
the Continent, like the Apricot, Diosp]/ros lotus .(Crimea, 
Caucasus, India,- etc.), Ziziphus sativa (North Africa and 
North China) , Buxus sempervirens (Western Caucasus and 
Western Hup eh) , Jfelumhium speciosum (Lake Hank a, E. Siberia 
and Caspian Sea-, at mouth of Volga) , and on this last trip 
I have found so much real wild: alfalfa on the whole way 
from Lin hsien iir Honan, almost up to this place here and 
in such out-of-the-way places and so utterly out of reach 
of men and of animals and often in company with other 
medicagos, like M. lupulina, that we safely can say that 
the common crawling and spreading strain of Medicago sativa 
is a real native of this country. The tall, upright form 
might have been brought from Central Asia, no doubt, as is 
stated in Chinese chronicles. 
We have had some very hard days on that whole trip 
from Changte fu, over Lin hsien, and Luanfu to here (Ping 
yang fu) , for the whole country, with a few exceptions, is 
very mountainous and most of our travel had to be done 
with packmules and the heat ! --Oreat Scott! --All of our 
candles are molten together and the sealing wax inside 
of a small case, within one of my trunks, had fraternized 
with leadpenclls and rubber bands, and the whole thing has 
become one fantastically looking mass. The alcohol in an 
Iron tin, which is inside a wooden case, became heated , and 
we had to let the gas pass off to prevent an explosion. 
Now however I find that this alcohol has been reduced con- 
siderably in volume and worse yet it has no strength any- 
more. The fruit I had in the tin, as peaches, plums, ap- 
ricots, etc., have all become dissolved and only the 
stones and some pieces of skin are left on the bottom. 
I conclude, therefore, that in the heat of the summer 
one cannot carry fruits in alcohol with one. This winter 
I'll try It again. 
