Weeping Willow

Identifier: naturalistinwes02wils (find matches)
Title: A naturalist in Western China : with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Wilson, Ernest Henry, 1876-1930
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London, Methuen
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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lora of central and WesternChina. Delavays collection alone amounted to about 3000species, and Henrys exceeded this number! Botanistswere simply astounded at the wealth of new species andnew genera disclosed by these collections. An entirely newlight was thrown on many problems, and the headquarters ofseveral genera, such as, for example, Rhododendron, Lilium,Primula, Pyrus, Rubus, Rosa, Vitis, Lonicera, and Acer,heretofore attributed elsewhere, was shown to be China. This extraordinary wealth of species exists, notwith-standing the fact that every available bit of land is undercultivation. Below 2000 feet altitude the flora is every-where relegated to the roadsides, the cliffs, and other moreor less inaccessible places. It is impossible to conceive theoriginal floral wealth of this country, for obviously manytypes must have perished as agriculture claimed the land,not to mention the destruction of forests for economicpurposes. In order to summarize the account of this wonderful flora
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THE FLORA OF WESTERN CHINA 5 it is convenient to divide the region into altitudinal zonesor belts. The mountainous nature of the country lends itselfadmirably to such an arrangement, and it is perhaps the onlyfeasible way of dealing with a subject so vast and unwieldy.The chart (p. 7) represents an ideal section of the region andmay possibly convey a clearer idea of the subject than thetext which follows :— Division i.— The belt of cultivation—2000 feet altitude.The climate of the Yangtsze Valley, up to 2000 feet altitude,is essentially warm-temperate. Rice, cotton, sugar, maize,tobacco, sweet potatoes, and legumes are the principal summercrops; in winter, pulse, wheat, rape, hemp, Irish potato, andcabbage are generally gro^^^l. It is a region of intense culti-vation and the flora is neither rich nor varied. The followingwild plants are characteristic : Bamboos (Bambusa arundinacea,Phyllostachys pubesccns, and other species), Fan ~Pa.lm(Trachy car-pus excelsus), Pride of India (

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