1284 
he found his way to the Shaw Botanical Gardens in St. 
Louis. It was here that the Department found him when, 
after months of search after the right man to, send to 
explore China, it had almost despaired of finding 
anyone who combined an insatiable thirst for travel 
and the ability to walk long distances over trails 
and across country, with an extensive acquaintance 
with wild plants, a good knowledge of horticulture, 
and an absorbing and sustaining interest in the work 
of plant introduction. 
Meyer came into the Office of Foreign Seed and 
Plant Introduction in July, 1905, and was sent almost 
immediately to China, where he spent three years. Upon 
his return he spent one year in America and then went 
out to Chinese Turkestan, where he traveled for three 
more years and again returned to America. His third 
trip was into northwestern China and to the borders 
of Tibet, and he was gone on this trip three years. 
After another year spent in America, he again returned 
to China in. 1916 and had nearly completed his second 
year there when death overtook him. 
He introduced during these years of collecting 
over 2,000 species and varieties of plants; and these 
are in the main described in the Inventories of the 
Office. There are on file thousands of record cards 
* which give exact data as to the whereabouts and be- 
havior of the plants which he brought in as seeds or 
cuttings . 
Meyer's field work is done, and whether his body 
rests beside the great river of China or under some 
of the trees he loved and brought to this country will 
matter little to him. He will know that throughout 
his adopted land there will always be his own plants, 
- hundreds of them, - on mountain sides, in valleys, 
in fields, in the backyards and orchards of little 
cottages, on street corners, and in the arboreta of 
wealthy lovers of plants. And wherever they are they 
will all be his. 
