WII: 2:2 2
at any rate, because if he left Southwestern
Yu-nan, where Henry's station is, in September
to go anywhere in central or northern China,
he would reach a new collecting field too late
to accomplish anything this year. In view of
all this my idea would be that he might, after
seeing Ford, go up the Yang-tse River to Schang,
which is now a treaty post and for many years
Henry's headquarters, and collect there during
the autumn. In this particular region we know
that there are many trees and shrubs which have
not yet been introduced into cultivation, and
dried specimens of Henry's collecting in that part
of China can be seen either at Kew or here; and
a list of them could be made out from Dr. Bret-
Schneider's new book which I suppose you have
seen. Then in the winter when the collecting
season about Schang was over he might visit
Dr. Henry if you wanted him to do so. This of
course would take him to the South during the
winter, when he could do nothing in central
and northern China. My own idea is that the
great fields to be worked are from Schang westward
to the mountainous region on the border
between China and Thibet, and then northward
in the territory watered by the upper Yellow River,
and so on to Pekin and northward.
I have been thinking myself lately a good deal
about China and have almost determined to try
and do something there on account of the Arboretum
if I can get hold of the right man for the work.
All this is still very vague with me and may come
to nothing; if it does, there is no danger of one
conflicting, for the field is an enormous one
EN