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National Geographic : 1925 Apr
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S YUNNAN PROVINCE EXPEDITION BY GILBERT GROSVENOR, LL. D. President of the National Geographic Society SINCE the publication of the first of Mr. Joseph F. Rock's articles based on the work of the National Geo graphic Society's Expedition in Yunnan Province, China,* it has been possible to examine in detail the collections of plants, seeds, birds, and mammals which the leader of the expedition has brought back to the United States. A brief summary of the achievements of The Society in this field will be of interest to its members. In February, 1923, the National Geo graphic Society took over from the U. S. Department of Agriculture the expedition into Yiinnan Province, southwest China, headed by Mr. Rock, previously known to readers of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE as the agricultural explorer who found, among the hills of Burma, the trees which produce the chaulmoogra-oil seed, a specific for leprosy. The Society provided Mr. Rock with funds which enabled him greatly to ex tend the scope of his work in Yiinnan, with the result that during the succeeding eighteen months he made researches and explorations which not only have in creased our knowledge of a little-known part of China, inhabited by many diverse tribes, but which will materially enrich the flora of the Western World and may, through the discovery of a blight-resistant chestnut, prove of incalculable importance in restoring to American forests one of our most valuable trees. It was toward the collection of the blight-resistant chestnuts and specimens of other economic plants that the activi ties of the expedition were mainly di rected. Large quantities of chestnuts of apparently immune species were for warded by registered mail direct to the Department of Agriculture. A fine col lection of seeds of coniferous trees, such as spruces, firs, hemlocks, pines, and junipers, was also sent. * See "Banishing the Devil of Disease Among the Nashi," in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for November, 1924. Besides these seeds of economic im portance, Mr. Rock sent to America nu merous rare and promising species of primrose, larkspur, gentian, and other flowering plants. COLLECTIONS WILL ADD BEAUTY TO GAR DENS OF THE WORLD The expedition's rhododendron collec tion is the most remarkable ever brought together, including 493 species, or more varieties than had been previously known in America. These, it is believed, will prove of great value to horticulturists throughout the United States, and many new species of this handsome genus of flowering shrubs may be established. They come mainly from the high moun tain districts of Yiinnan and exhibit wide range in habit of growth and color of flower. Complete sets of these rhododendrons have been sent as gifts of the National Geographic Society to Kew Gardens at London, to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh, and one each to Hon. Vicary Gibbs and Mr. A. K. Bulley, both of Eng land, amateurs who specialize in these plants and whose collections are famous. In the United States The Society's rho dodendrons will soon blossom in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; in gardens of the Puget Sound region, and in herba riums along the eastern seaboard. Later, when the seeds which have been sown in the Department of Agriculture's green houses near Washington have developed into sturdy young plants, further distri bution will be made. Dr. David Fairchild, in charge of the Government's plant importations, reports that Mr. Rock's chestnuts, which include several species heretofore unknown to the horticultural world, and perhaps new even to botanical science, may be used to re place our rapidly disappearing forests of American chestnut. These blight-resist ant species are of interest to the tanning industry, which has always depended upon chestnut bark to a great extent, and
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