The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-12-27
CHINA M0THERlAND
OF MANY FLOWERS
American Experimenters Try to
Adopt Some of Her
Wonderful Trees

China is much in the public eye
now with its revolution and its pros
pect of development 1t has been in
the eye of agriculture, however, and
of botanists of note. for long time,
and it Is now generally conceded that
the native heath of many of our COM
monest and loveliest bowers is China.
Ernest II. Wilson, collector for the
Arnold Arboretum in Boston, the most
wonderful collection OF trees In the
world, writing in the National Geo
graphic Magazine for November. says
that the early varieties of roses,
camellias. azaleas, greenhouse prim-
roses, gardenias, paeonies and chrys-
anthemums came from China. The
first knowledge of the wonderful gar
dens of the Chinese and of the plants
grown therein was brought back to
England by trading vessels OF the
East India company, and others, at
the end of the 18th century and early
in the 10Th century.
But the flowers cultivated In the
| Chinese gardens are limited in vari-
| ETY. and chosen chiefly for purity Of
color and form, gracefulness In hab-
| 1t and delicacy of fragrance. 1t is
the wild flowers of China which are
the revelation and through the ex-
animation of specimens collected by
pioneer botanists. the headquarters of
several genera, for example rhod-
dendron, lilium, primula, pyrus, ru-
bus. rosa Wits and others hitherto
attributed elsewhere, was shown to be
China
Introducing Trees
| Especially well equipped Is this
country with wonderful trees, and 1t
Is the effort of the Arnold Arboretum
to find out which OF them can be
brought to the United States and
made to flourish here. For instance
China has a very valuable tree
known as the varnish tree, from
which is obtained the sap for making
the remarkable lacquer which is one
of the important Chinese industries.
1t is the most indestructible varnsh
known. The bamboo is another Chi
nese tree which Is valuable in sew
eral ways. The shoots of this tree,
when very young. are edible, and con-
sidered a greater delicacy by many
than the young asparagus shoots.
| The Gingko tree. also known as
the maiden hair is one of the most
ornamental broad-leaved confers
known. China possesses, says Mr..
Wilson, a greater variety of trees
than the whole of North America
and of ornamental shrubs has more
varieties than are to be found In the
temperate fora OF all other lands.
Many of her ornamental trees and
shrubs are suitable for cultivation in
the parks and gardens of the United
States.
That many of them will thrive here
is anticipated from the fact that there
seems to be a peculiarly kinship be-
tween the trees of the Atlantic side
of the United States and China. There
| are many instances In which only two
species of a genus are known--one
| in the eastern United states and the
other in China or Japan. Noteworthy
examples are the tulip tree, Kentucky
coffee tree and the Sassafrass In
each of these China possesses one
specimen. and this country another
considerable number of families
are common to both countries, and in
most instances China is the dominant
partner In a few instances the same
species Is common to both countries,
the most extraordinary instance be-
ing the umbrella leaf. This plant
occurs in localities separated by 40
degrees of longitude and shows abso-
lutely no marked variation. In cases
where the. families have representa-
ton In other parts Of the world. the
Individual species from China are
more closely akin to those OF North
America than to those or Europe.
Mr.. Wilson hnds the explanation IN
the glaciation OF the Northern hem
sphere In prehistoric times. when.
undoubtedly, the land connection be-
tween Asia and america was much
more. complete than 1t is today.