A Naturalist in Western China with Vasculum, Camera and Gun
Being Some Account of Eleven Years' Travel

A detailed account of a journey through Western China by a plant collector who spent much of his career there.

Ernest Henry Wilson (Author)

9781108030465, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 July 2011

344 pages, 44 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.44 kg

Ernest Henry Wilson (1876–1930) was introduced to China in 1899 when, as a promising young botanist, he was sent there by horticulturalist Henry Veitch (1840–1924) to collect the seed of the handkerchief tree, Davidia involucrata, for propagation in Britain. Subsequent trips saw Wilson bringing back hundreds of seed samples and plant collections, introducing many Chinese plants to Europe and North America. He wrote extensively about his travels in China: this two-volume work was published in 1913. Although much of the text is concerned with plant life, Wilson also gives a great deal of attention to the wider landscape around him. In addition, Wilson took a camera, and these volumes contain photographs of parts of China rarely seen by Europeans in the early twentieth century. In Volume 2 Wilson examines how people in western China use their plants in medicine and agriculture, including the important tea industry.

1. The flora of Western China – a brief account of the richest temperate flora in the world
2. The principal timber trees
3. Fruits, wild and cultivated
4. Chinese materia medica
5. Gardens and gardening – favourite flowers cultivated by the Chinese
6. Agriculture – the principal food-stuff crops
7. The more important plant products – wild and cultivated trees of economic importance
8. The more important plant products – cultivated shrubs and herbs of economic value
9. Tea and 'tea-yielding' plants – the tea industry for the Thibetan markets
10. Insect white-wax
11. Sport in Western China – pheasants and other game birds
12. Sport in Western China – wild-fowl shooting on the Ya River
13. Sport in Western China – ruminant and other game animals
14. Sport in Western China – carnivorous and other animals, including monkeys
15. Western China – minerals and mineral wealth
16. Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Botany & plant sciences [PST]