6

The Xiang Xi river, with the mountains of Xingshan County to the rear. Once a small stream, this tributary and its valley had been substantiallyflooded by the Three Gorges dam at the time of our 2004 expedition to Hubei Province.

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7

Foreword by Roy Lancaster OBE VMH 8

Maps 10

Acknowledgements 14

Introduction 16

Chapter 1: Famine and farewell – a new life in China 18

Chapter 2: Upon the Fairy Raft – exploring Yichang 24

Chapter 3: Tracing the seasons through Yichang and Badong 44

Chapter 4: To the roof of central China 68

Chapter 5: A pilgrimage to Yichang 92

Chapter 6: To the snows of Tibet with Antwerp Pratt 160

Chapter 7: A transfer to Hainan 186

Chapter 8: To the tropics of Taiwan 196

Chapter 9: To Taiwan by way of Shanghai and Hong Kong 214

Chapter 10: To the wilds of Yunnan 232

Chapter 11: A transfer to Simao 258

Chapter 12: End of an odyssey – Yunnan Province 278

Chapter 13: Henry the forester 306

Epilogue 330

Appendix 1: Augustine Henry’s plants 332

Appendix 2: Chinese place names 336

Appendix 3: Augustine Henry (1857–1930): a chronology 338

Appendix 4: Select glossary 340

Appendix 5: Notes 342

Appendix 6: Select bibliography 344

Index of plants 349

Index of places and people 360

Contents

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(Thiselton-Dyer’s father-in-law) as director. At this time, Henryhad a second native plant collector at work at Liantuo (Nanto),a small hamlet nestled among orange groves some 32 km(20 miles) upriver from Yichang. Liantuo was spectacularlylocated on the north bank of the Yangtze River, within theXiling Gorge, and its little cluster of houses sat in a muddle withan enormous wall of limestone crags at its back. It faced directlyonto the Yangtze and even taller cliffs on the river’s oppositebank. According to E. H. Wilson, the same cliffs containedboth Cambrian and Ordovician fossils.2 Henry’s Liantuo manconcentrated his collecting in the wooded mountains to thenorth of the hamlet, and, at times, travelled as far north as Fang,a mountainous region then still heavily forested.

Liantuo proved to be a treasure trove of new, exciting,highly garden-worthy plants, and Henry’s best find from theregion in 1886 has to be the giant lily, Cardiocrinumgiganteum var. yunnanense, a spectacular plant, which, sevenyears after germinating from a tiny seed, throws up a 2-m(6.5-ft) tall, burgundy-purple flowering stem. The individualfunnel-shaped flowers, like the rest of the plant, are gargantuanin scale. Each gloriously scented white flower is striped maroonand up to 25 cm (10 in.) in length, and a dozen are carried 2 m(6.5 ft) above a basal rosette of large, dramatic, heart-shaped,copper-toned leaves. This enormous show costs the giant lily itslife, a spectacular finale to an astonishing plant. Before dying,however, it produces plump, upright seed capsules, containingthousands of seeds, and several bulbils form around the

original bulb that will flower just fours years later, as opposedto a seven-year wait from seed. This noble lily was so abundantin the Three Gorges region during the late 19th century thatHenry stated its gorgeous turret of flowers could be spied milesaway across the valleys.3

This Chinese variety differs from the type plant –Cardiocrinum giganteum, from the Himalayan region – in itsouter morphological features: the dark stems, the bronzespring foliage, the horizontally held flower’s habit of openingfrom the top of the stem downwards, and the shape of theseed capsules. It is also shorter, rarely more than 2 m (6.5 ft)tall. The Himalayan plant, Cardiocrinum giganteum, wasdiscovered by Dr Nathaniel Wallich (1786–1854) in Nepal in1825 and was introduced by means of seeds sent by the Irishcollector Colonel Edward Madden to Glasnevin in 1847.Cardiocrinum giganteum has a native range extending fromKashmir to as far as Tibet and the Yunnan Province, whileHenry’s var. yunnanense extends from Yunnan (where helater made further collections) to Hubei Province.

The Chinese quince, Chaenomeles cathayensis, was common

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ABOVE: The tiny hamlet of Liantuo (formerly Nanto) was a base for oneof Henry’s most successful native plant collectors. Liantuo lies perched onthe northern bank of the Yangtze above Yichang and is surrounded bycliffs on all sides. In 1882, Henry gathered fossilised cycads in thin bedsof coal here. Three years later, he began collecting plants.

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around Liantuo and Yichang, where it formed an open-branched shrub to 4.5 m (15 ft) tall. Probably the finest of allthe fruiting quinces, there is an old wall-trained plant atGlasnevin that, every February, carries clusters of pale-pinkflowers on short-spurred growths, followed in autumn by large,deliciously scented, golden yellow fruits to 15 cm (6 in.) long.It grew wild in the Three Gorges region and Wilson observedthat it was grown as a hedge plant at Changyang, a county tothe south of Yichang in Hubei Province. Though described asa new species from Henry’s central Chinese collections, thisquince had been introduced to Europe in 1800.

Hemiboea henryi was not just a new species, but also abeautiful new genus. This hardy herbaceous gesneriad wascommon on the faces of damp cliffs, where it formed dome-shaped plants to about 30 cm (12 in.) high and carriedwaxy, white, tubular flowers with a yellow splash in the

throat. Henry called it the hsiang-lung-ts’ao and noted thata decoction of the root with alcohol was used by villagedoctors to treat cases of snakebite. Wilson later introducedit, though it did not persist for long in cultivation.4

Another cliff inhabitant around Liantuo that also provednew to science was the ai-pai-ts’ai, or cliff cabbage,Triaenophora rupestris (syn. Rehmannia rupestris). It too wasmuch esteemed in traditional herbal medicine and, accordingto Henry, it grew only in the most inaccessible places on thefaces of cliffs at Liantuo and within the gorges, where itformed a very striking plant when in flower. He introduced itto cultivation through Kew, where it first flowered in 1888.5

The winter boxes, Sarcococca, are valuable shrubs andtheir small white flowers bring a magical scent to the gardenin the depths of winter and early spring. Henry discoveredno fewer than three new species, and how poorer ourWestern gardens would be without the finest of these:Sarcococca ruscifolia. It was particularly common aroundLiantuo and in the glens above Yichang. That delightfullyscented, late-flowered, mock orange Philadelphus incanuswas also discovered near Liantuo in the same year.

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Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense – an impressive group of plantsin fruit at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The dark stems and plumpseed capsules prolong the season of interest long after flowering finishes.

Chaenomeles cathayensis. The flowers are borne in early spring on short-spurred growths, and these are followed in autumn by large, deliciouslyfragrant, golden-yellow fruits.

Sarcococca ruscifolia, more commonly known as winter box. It is now apopular plant in European and North American gardens on account of itssweetly scented blossoms.

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The forest floor was also a rich source of interesting newplants. Chrysosplenium henryi grew as a stoloniferousperennial to 20 cm (8 in.) tall and sported lime-greenflowers in terminal cymes surrounded by large leafy bracts.Enjoying a similar habitat was Paeonia obovata var.willmottiae. This well-known peony was later described fromplants growing in the garden of plant-hunter’s patron EllenWillmott (1858–1934), having been raised from seedscollected in Hubei Province by E. H. Wilson.

New plants continue to be found in Henry’s herbariumcollection to this day, and one of these, first described in1999 from Henry’s 1888 Badong collections, is the kuei-chiu,6 or Podophyllum versipelle ssp. boreale, a dramaticperennial with bold, lobed, peltate leaves borne on a longpetiole arising directly from a fleshy underground rhizome.The curious, burgundy-coloured flowers are carried inclusters from the underside of the leaf petiole, thusprotecting the flowers from extremes in weather atpollination time. According to Henry, it formed extensivecolonies beneath the shade of montane woodland. Suchcolonies are clonal and are a result of adventitious root buds.7

Other beautiful woodlanders included Paris fargesii,which was described from material later collected in SichuanProvince by the French naturalist Père Paul Farges. Henry’scobra lily, Arisaema sikokianum var. henryanum, is probablythe most sinister-looking of all the aroids from westernHubei Province. It is a spectacular plant when in flower, andbears a purple-black hooded spathe, striped white along itslower half. In the dense shade of the forest interior,Hymenophyllum henryi, a delicate filmy fern, draped itsdelicate fronds across rocks and tree trunks.

Another fine Badong plant that bears Henry’s name isthe green slipper orchid, Cypripedium henryi. In HubeiProvince, this species inhabits deciduous woodland andscrubby slopes and grassland at the verge of forests. It is alsoone of the easiest of the slipper orchids to grow. In themeadows were many new perennials, including Geraniumfranchetii, Pedicularis filicifolia, Meehania henryi,Scrophularia henryi and the geum-like Coluria henryi.

At night, Henry found accommodation in local inns andtemples, and, on 29 June, he wrote a letter to WilliamThiselton-Dyer from the Pao-an Temple, a Taoist shrine in

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Berberis henryana, Henry’s barberry, is rare in Western gardens, though itdeserves to be better known and more widely grown.

Arisaema sikokianum var. henryanum, still a common plant wherewoodland has persisted in the Three Gorges region.

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the Badong mountains. In the coming years, he oftenstayed in such temples and used their altars to sortspecimens and as a desk on which to write up his notes. Thiswas in no way disrespectful. Though born into the Catholicfaith, Henry remained a life-long atheist, but always treatedother people’s beliefs with due respect.

American counterparts in Jianshi CountyFrom the great mountain ranges above the county seat ofBadong, Augustine Henry and his men continued theirtravels to the mountains of Jianshi (then Chienshih)County, which lay some 80 km (50 miles) to the south-west. Jianshi was a small, isolated, impoverished settlementand copper was mined in the area. Though the mountainswere not quite as high as those in Badong, the flora wasequally rich and Henry immediately set to work oncollecting. This must have been a remarkably enjoyable timefor him, considering the isolation of the region, thewonderfully rugged terrain, the wealth of the flora and theenormous volumes of dried specimens, many of whichwould later prove new to science.

The forests at Jianshi consisted of a rich assemblage ofdeciduous and evergreen trees. One of the most dominantof these was Lithocarpus henryi, a magnificent evergreentree to 16 m (52 ft) tall bearing long, shining, leatherylanceolate leaves. Wilson introduced it in 1901, throughMessrs Veitch, and one of his collections (W. 775) stillgrows at the Kilmacurragh Botanical Gardens in Ireland.

Another interesting find from that district was theChinese tulip tree, Liriodendron chinense, a member of agenus previously only known from eastern North America.Henry was not the first person to discover this species,though his were the first complete specimens on which thenew species could be based. The Chinese tulip tree was firstcollected in 1875 by Dr George Shearer on the Lushanmountain in neighbouring Jiangxi Province. Shearer’sspecimen was without flower or fruit and was mistakenlypresumed to be a naturalised tree of the AmericanLiriodendron tulipifera. Again, in 1878, the Veitchiancollector, Charles Maries sent specimens from the sameregion. His collections came from an immature shoot andneither the leaves or fruits were fully developed. With the

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Henry’s slipper orchid, Cypripedium henryi, is distributed across much ofwestern and central China. It is seen here flowering in time for ourexhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May 2002.

Lithocarpus henryi, seen here in the Hillier Arboretum in Hampshire. Inthe woods of western Hubei and Sichuan provinces, it forms medium-sized, domed-shaped trees.

Liriodendron chinense, the Chinese tulip tree. A genus once thought to beendemic to eastern North America, it was from Augustine Henry’sspecimens that the Chinese tree was described as a new species.

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believe that everything in nature, whether a mountain, treeor stream, contains its own spirit and that miniature examplespossess it in concentrated form. A contorted, gnarled shapewas thought to represent the bodies of those in the worldbeyond mortality, where they attained great age. Out of thesebeliefs, the art of penjing emerged. A few hundred years afterits birth in China, penjing became popular in Japan. TheChinese word for a pot plant is penzai; the same charactersare pronounced ‘bonsai’ by the Japanese.6

Several different styles were practiced in this little town;some plants were superbly trained as solitary trees, whileother containers had entire groves, with large rocks addingbeautifully to the miniature landscapes. The examples wesaw had been produced by digging old, gnarled, stuntedplants from the local mountains. These were then cut hardback and some of the resultant shoots had been trained andretrained for a number of years before being potted intotheir shallow earthenware and terracotta containers. Themost popular subjects used in Gaoyang were Mahoniabealei, Distylium racemosum, Adina rubella, Ginkgo biloba,Ilex pernyi and a heavily fruited persimmon, Diospyros

armata. The latter was discovered by Henry near Liantuoin 1888 and was introduced by Wilson 16 years later.Wilson described it as a very rare tree and knew it from onlyone or two localities in Hubei.

By riversides, Pterocarya hupehensis made 10-m (33-ft)tall trees, and, beside it, we collected seeds from the globularfruiting clusters of Camptotheca acuminata; Henry himselfhad collected this tree in Changyang. Camptotheca is knownas the ‘happy tree’ or ‘cancer tree’. It is a handsomedeciduous tree of rapid growth and can reach about 25 m(82 ft) high, with recorded girths of up to 2 m (6.5 ft). It isfound throughout western and central China, though, likeHenry’s persimmon, Wilson recorded it as being rare inHubei Province. The genus was discovered by Père ArmandDavid on the Lushan (Mount Lu) range in Jiangxi Provincein 1868. In traditional Chinese herbal medicine, the fruits ofthis species are used to treat patients suffering from cancer ofthe digestive tract and leukaemia. The active compound,which shows such promise in treating cancer, iscamptothecine, and cultivars with higher yields of thiscompound are being developed. Indigenous to China, it is

110

Spectacular mountainous countryside seen from the summit of Tianthu Shan near Changyang. The silvery plumes of Miscanthus sinensis may be seen tothe left. The last Western plant hunter to collect in this region before our 2004 visit was E. H. Wilson.

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now commercially grown as a crop plant in India, Japan andthe USA. The parts originally used in China were the stem,bark and seeds, but it is now mainly the young leaves, andtrees are clipped for repeated harvests. In China, the xi shu,or ‘happy tree’, has also been used for centuries to treat coldsand diseases of the spleen, liver, stomach and gall bladder.

Debregeasia longifolia was abundant along the approachroad to Changyang, as was Celastrus angulatus, a vigorousclimber that cascaded its long wiry stems from roadside clifffaces, and, at that stage, its large, yellow, fruiting capsuleshad split open to reveal bright orange seeds within. Fromour Changyang collections, a particularly fine form of

Actinidia rubricaulis, with beautifully marbled, purple-brown splashed foliage, was raised at Glasnevin and nowgrows at her sister garden at Kilmacurragh.

‘Gem of gems’ was how one of our travelling companions,Assumpta Broomfield, described Campanumoea javanica var.japonica after finding it in a nearby roadside thicket. Thisherbaceous climber scrambled its way through surroundingbushes to about 1.5 m (5 ft) high, and carried masses of small,cream-coloured, bell-shaped flowers, each with a purplesplash in the throat. Gem of gems, indeed. We collectedplenty of seeds and a voucher specimen, and continued ourforay for good garden plants.

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A penjing (literally,‘potted scenery’)production area inthe small town ofGaoyang. Thespecimens beingtrained here areAdina rubella, acommon shrubfound on the banksof the Yangtze and itsnumerous tributaries.

‘Gem of Gems’, Campanumoea javanica var. japonica, an herbaceousclimber that was common in thickets along the approach road toChangyang.

Camptotheca acuminata, the ‘cancer tree’. The tree’s chemicalcompound, camptothecine, has proved effective in the treatment ofleukaemia.

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Common plants at Badong. CLOCKWISE: Rubus henryi var. bambusarum (seenhere scrambling through a fence at Glasnevin); Lysimachia barystachys, analtogether better plant than the similar and more widely grown Lysimachiaclethroides; Clerodendrum trichotomum, the blue fruits of which are surroundedby a persistent crimson calyx; Aconitum carmichaelii commemorates Dr J. R.Carmichael of the London Mission Society. According to Augustine Henry, largequantities of the tuberous roots of this monk’s-hood were shipped down thegorges and used medicinally.

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saw were weighed down with heavy clusters of bright red,translucent berries. In China, the bark fibre of thismagnificent shrub is used to make ropes and paper.

Several different species of Rubus grew on the hills aboveBadong. One of the most admirable was Rubus pacificus, anevergreen scandent shrub of about a metre (3.3 ft) tall withbold, heart-shaped foliage and delicious yellow fruits carriedalong its slim, gracefully arching branches. Even better againwas Rubus henryi var. bambusarum, whose long scandentstems ran across large boulders and into nearby trees. It isone of the commonest brambles in the Three Gorges region,and is one of the most ornamental. Unlike the type, i.e.Rubus henryi, whose leaves are three-lobed, the foliage ofRubus henryi var. bambusarum consists of three very narrow,lance-shaped leaflets, and these are plastered with a finewhite felt on the underside.

The viciously armed Zanthoxylum armatum (syn. Z.planispinum) also grew in this area and formed a widespreading bush of about 4 m (13 ft). Henry knew it as thekou hua chiao and stated that it was common on the plainsin hedges, and that it was very often planted on graves. Inmy estimation, this is the finest of all the hardyzanthoxylums, and, at Kilmacurragh, it retains its foliageright up to the end of January. It is for its exotic-lookingpinnate leaves that this species is generally grown. These arecomposed of five stalkless leaflets and the main petiolecarries a broad conspicuous wing along its length. Theleaflets increase in size towards the end of the leaf; theterminal one is up to twice as long as the others, and allleaflets bear large, pinkish-red pairs of spines on the upper-and undersides. In autumn, it carries great clusters of smallred fruits. Native to much of East Asia, in Nepal,toothbrushes are made from the branches of this shrub andthe fruits are used to relieve toothache and to stupefy fish.

Ferns were common in shaded gullies and on the edgeof woods. Matteuccia orientalis was one of the mosthandsome of these and carried its fronds in the typicalshuttlecock fashion. The five-fingered maidenhair fern,Adiantum pedatum, is common over much of East Asia andNorth America and is popular in European gardens onaccount of its gracefully curving, circular fronds that carryfinely dissected foliage on finger-like stems to one side ofthe rachis. Enjoying the same conditions were perennialssuch as Epimedium saggittatum (mentioned in Chineseherbals as an aphrodisiac for sheep!), Aconitumcarmichaelii, Changium smyrnioides, Hosta ventricosa,Houttuynia cordata and Lysimachia barystachys. The latteris a fine garden plant, similar to the more widely grownL. clethroides, though it is taller growing and bears longerflower spikes that bloom over a far longer period.

Yesanguan and LangpingFrom the hills above Badong town, we travelled further southtowards Yesanguan, a small town near Jianshi where AugustineHenry made many remarkable finds in May 1888. Yesanguanlay deep in one of the most rural mountainous districts ofsouth Badong County, though its flora, too, had beenseriously plundered and all that remained were occasionalcopses of secondary vegetation and roadside thickets.

These, however, still harboured many interesting plantsand the area was certainly worth a visit. Vegetation also stillclung to mountain summits and to exposed ridges, and it wason a steep ridge between Yesanguan and Langping (inChangyang County) that we found the extremely rare Sorbuswilsoniana, an 8-m (26-ft) tall tree with large, red, stickybuds and rounded clusters of small orange-red fruits. Firstfound by Henry, Wilson collected this fine rowan in Badongin May 1901, and found it again in 1907 near Yichang andin woods near Changyang. He introduced it to cultivationthrough Ellen Willmott’s garden at Warley Place (now anature reserve) soon afterwards, though that tree diedwithout being propagated and it was not reintroduced toWestern gardens until 1985, when seeds were obtained from

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Magnolia officinalis, the hon-po, was commonly cultivated around hamletsand villages near Yesanguan Town.

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open glades. It is one of the most widespread of Chineserhododendrons and Henry collected it in Hubei Province,Taiwan and later in southern Yunnan Province. In its nativehabitat, it forms an evergreen shrub up to 3 m (10 ft) talland carries terminal clusters of up to six blossoms in shadesof red and, occasionally, orange. Kingdon Ward comparedthe flowering of this shrub to ‘the glow from an activevolcano at night’. According to E. H. Wilson, it wasabundant in the Yangtze valley during the early 20thcentury, so much so that, in places, whole hillsides in Maywere red with its flowers. It is one of the parents of theindoor azalea, used as a pot plant at Christmas.

Rhododendron oldhamii occupied the same habitat andformed much-branched shrubs, to 4 m (13 ft) high, andbore terminal clusters of orange-red flowers, stained pinkon the upper lobe. Endemic to Taiwan, it is more commonon the northern part of the island, where it was discoveredby Richard Oldham in 1864; it was introduced tocultivation by Charles Maries through Messrs Veitch in1878. It was reintroduced by E. H. Wilson in 1918, and issuited only to the mildest, most sheltered gardens of Britainand Ireland (USDA zone 9).

Lilium formosanum was common throughout the island,and it made a pretty picture in the tropical grasslands by thecoast at South Cape. Endemic to Taiwan, this delightful littlelily carries several nodding, deliciously fragrant, white,funnel-shaped flowers, which are striped wine-red on theoutside. According to E. H. Wilson, it was common in thenorth of the island, but was much less frequent on the coralformations in the south where Henry obtained his material.Wilson missed collecting this lovely lily during his brief visitto the island, and it was from Henry’s collections that hebased his description of the species in his seminal work, TheLilies of Eastern Asia. It was discovered in June 1858 byCharles Wilford in northern Taiwan, and was introduced byCharles Maries in 1880. Lilium formosanum is easy to growand will bloom within six months from seed.

South Cape also proved to be particularly rich in newplants. A common woodland inhabitant of the region wasEriobotrya deflexa, a medium-sized evergreen tree foundthroughout broad-leaved forests at low altitudes in Taiwan.Endemic to that island, Henry called it the ‘k’o tree’ and it wasfirst grown outdoors in Europe at Dunloe Castle in CountyKerry, Ireland, where it was planted by the English plantsmanand explorer, Roy Lancaster. In 2002, it formed part of ourHenry exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and, at thetime, it carried masses of bold, newly emerged, copper-tintedfoliage, which is one of the charming features of this species.

The camellia relative Schima superba var. kankoensis formedhuge evergreen trees, and it later proved to be endemic tosouthern Taiwan. In late spring, this variety carries small,creamy-white flowers with a central mass of golden-yellowstamens. In later years, Henry was to learn that a highproportion of his collections were new endemics and ofextremely limited distribution. Take, for example, the pearelative Millettia pulchra var. microphylla, a shrub or small treewith short pinnate leaves, and the evergreen oak relative,Pasania formosana. Both are only found along a tiny coastalstrip of the Hengchun Peninsula that surrounds the lighthouse.In a similar case, the evergreen Magnolia kachirachirai shares alimited area of distribution in the South Cape region, and thereit forms trees to 17m (56 ft) tall and bears small, white, cup-shaped blossoms in early summer. Henry’s native plantcollector found this rare tree in 1894, and it was describedfrom material later gathered by Japanese botanists.

On the opposite extreme, some of these new trees, suchas Wendlandia formosana, a small, semi-deciduous tree inthe coffee family (Rubiaceae), were later found to be widelydistributed in the Old World tropics; in this case, fromIndo-Malaysia, southern China and the Ryukyus tonorthern Australia. It is a seashore tree in Taiwan. Othernew tree species from this region included Astroniaformosana, Beilschmiedia erythrophloia, Lindera akoensis,Lithocarpus amygdalifolius, Lithocarpus brevicaudata,

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Murraya paniculata, variously known as the orange jasmine, mock orangeor Burmese boxwood. In Java, the sweetly scented blossoms are used inthe manufacture of perfume.

Elaeocarpus sylvestris, a handsome tree bearing copper-toned foliage inspring and summer. It has only recently entered Western cultivation andhas proved perfectly hardy at Glasnevin.

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The epiphytic orchid Phalaenopsis aphrodite was commonly foundon trees in southern Taiwan a century ago. It is now extremely rare,due to overcollecting.

Rhododendron simsii, distributed from Burma in the west to Hong Kong in the east. It was introduced to cultivation in 1808 by the East India Company.

The gorgeous Lilium formosanum, seen here in a bulb frame at Glasnevin. Incultivation, it is often grown in a cool alpine house, where its wonderfullyscented, funnel-shaped blooms fill the surrounding air with its exquisite perfume.

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Native to Taiwan and the Philippines, the leaves of Dendrocnidemeyeniana are covered with minute hairs, which sting violently. Henryknew it as the ‘yao-jen-kon’.

Alocasia odora, a giant aroid that is native to the tropical forests of theHimalaya, China and the Philippines. Its huge bold leaves act as a perfectantidote to the stinging leaves of the nettle tree, Dendrocnide meyeniana.

Pittosporum pentandrum, here carrying a large crop of rounded, orangefruits. Native to southern Taiwan and the Philippines, it forms a smalltree.

Macaranga tanarius is often grown as a shade tree in tropical parts ofTaiwan. It is a pioneer species that quickly colonises clearings in tropicalrainforest.

Abutilon indicum, a pretty sub-shrub to about 1.5 m (5 ft) tall. Henrycollected it several times in Taiwan and at Mengzi and Simao in southernYunnan Province.

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In a field above the lighthouse, farmers were busy makinghay and it seemed a little strange to stand in a hayfield full ofround bales on the edge of tropical rainforest. The headlandswere full of Miscanthus floridulus, a coarse-looking plant incomparison to the better-known Miscanthus sinensis, butworth collecting nonetheless. In thickets by the edge of thesame hayfield grew a number of interesting plants, includingAbutilon indicum and Sida rhombifolia, both really onlyweeds, but handsome plants in their own right.

Trees in this thicket included Scolopia oldhamii andAglaia formosana, both of which are native to Taiwan andthe Philippines. The Aglaia is a particularly beautiful treewith silvery-bronze pinnate foliage, and, in Taiwan, it isfound only along the seashore of the Hengchun Peninsula– and it was discovered there by Henry in 1893.

From the coastal forests of South Cape, we travelled inlandto nearby Kenting National Park. On the edge of tropicalrainforest grew many colourful shrubs, and the most flamboyantof these was Clerodendrum paniculatum f. albiflorum, a bush to1.5 m (5 ft) tall. The type – Clerodendrum paniculatum,commonly known as the ‘pagoda flower’ because of the tieredarrangement of the flowers in a panicle – is a widespread species

in south-east Asia, and carries upright panicles of fiery-orangeflowers. We later collected it on Ape’s Hill near Kaohsiung. Theform albiflorum is a stunningly beautiful plant with pure whiteflowers, and we gathered a good batch of seeds for introductionthrough Glasnevin. The white pagoda flower grew alongsideVitex quinata, a 4-m (13-ft) tall bush, then a billowing mass ofsmall, lilac-blue blossoms. Through it climbed two species ofPueraria. The first, Pueraria lobata ssp. thomsonii, scaled its wayto about 3 m (10 ft) and carried axillary racemes of light blueblossoms. The second, Pueraria montana, twined its way to asimilar height, and bore densely packed racemes of pink-purpleflowers while the undersides of its large trifoliate leaves werebeautifully coated in a lining of short silvery hairs.

Another climber that grew nearby was the curiouslybeautiful bitter gourd, Momordica charantia, a slender,annual, palaeotropical vine carrying yellow vanilla-scentedflowers followed by multi-ribbed, warty, orange-red fruits,which are dehiscent at maturity and burst into a star-likeconfiguration. The grassy downs approaching the forests werefull of Chloris barbata, a showy grass bearing digitate flowerspikes. Widely spread in south-east Asia, it is considered bysome experts to be truly native to tropical America.

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Aglaia formosana, a medium-sized evergreen tree with silvery branchlets.In Taiwan, it is found only on the Hengchun Peninsula that surroundsthe lighthouse at South Cape.

Clerodendrum paniculatum f. albiflorum, the rare white pagoda flower,seen here wild at Kenting National Park.

The common pagoda flower, Clerodendrum paniculatum, pictured onApe’s Hill.

Chloris barbata, a common grass in tropical south-east Asia, which Henrycollected near Kaohsiung.

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Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden and SimaoOur base for the next few days was Menglun, a small town nearthe Laos border. There, we stayed in the Xishuangbanna TropicalBotanic Garden, which is administered by the Chinese Academyof Sciences. The garden lies on an island on the Luosuo River (abranch of the Mekong), and was established by the famousChinese botanist, the late Professor Cai Xitao in 1959.

Over the past 50 years, this garden has played animportant role in the research of tropical botany, forestecology, conservation and public education. Spanning anarea of some 900 ha (2,224 acres), the garden houses aliving collection of 10,000 tropical and subtropical plants,the richest plant collection in all of China, and it alsocontains an area of primary tropical rainforest.

It is strange that what is probably the best botanic gardenin China should be located in one of the most remote cornersof the country. The collection was impressive: well maintainedand labelled, and the entire garden was beautifully planted andlaid out. Our hotel was located in the centre of the garden,with a large swimming pool surrounded by palm trees such asRoystonea regia, Caryota urens and an enormous traveller’spalm, Ravenalia madagascariensis. Plant exploration at itsleisurely best, we thought – I found myself questioning whythere was no swimming pool at Glasnevin!

The gardens gave a good introduction to what we werelikely to see in the surrounding tropical rainforest over thefollowing days. My notebook was soon crammed with thenames of unfamiliar trees and shrubs. I was particularlyimpressed with the collection of ginger relatives(Zingiberaceae), which grew beneath a canopy of exotic treessuch as Litsea dillenifolia, a 15-m (49-ft) tall tree with narrowlanceolate leaves to 60 cm (2 ft) long. The endemic Vaticaxishuangbannaensis also formed fine trees, and othergargantuan rainforest trees included Anthocephalus chinensis,Pometia tomentosa and the spectacular Erythrina macrosperma.

The orchid collection was equally remarkable, andflourished outdoors beneath the forest canopy in benignconditions. The most beautiful of these orchids were themany flowering plants of the scented, orange-yellow,epiphytic Dendrobium chrysanthum, whose pendulous floralsprays lit up the dark, humid rainforest.

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ABOVE: Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden is one of the finestproperties administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has thelargest plant collection of any garden in China. In the pool are the largefloating pads of the South American Victoria cruziana.

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What an exotic setting. The giant Amazonian waterlily,Victoria cruziana, flourished outside in a garden pool andperformed every bit as well as the cosseted plants at Kewand Glasnevin. Exotics such as Crinum asiaticum var.sinicum, Alpinia purpurea, Clerodendrum japonicum andHeliconia psittacorum sported bold, brash colours, the likesof which are only found in the tropics.

In the tropical rainforest reserve near the gardens, we spenta magical day in unspoilt primeval rainforest. The forest canopyprovided a welcome relief from the intense baking heat in theopen, and, yet again, we were left in awe and humbled byancient, enormous tropical trees such as Shorea chinensis andthe massively buttressed trunks of Pterospermum menglunense.Most impressive of all had to be the colossal trees of Bombaxceiba, the red cotton tree that Henry collected in nearbySimao. In spring, this tree presents a magnificent sight when itis covered with masses of short-lived, waxy, red flowers. It isnative from India to Malaysia and the from the Philippinessouth to Australia. The flowers are used in Chinese herbalmedicine while the fruit capsule furnishes a type of cotton,which, in 19th-century China, was used for stuffing pillows. In

Burma, the flowers are relished as a kind of vegetable curry. Rambling their way through these towering giants were

massive vines with stems as thick as a man’s waist. What arich and exotic assemblage: screw pines (Pandanusfurcatus), strangler figs, wild bananas and giant lianas. My

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CHAPTER 12: END OF AN ODYSSEY – YUNNAN PROVINCE

Our group beneath an enormous rainforest tree of Bombax ceiba, in thereserve belonging to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden.

BELOW: The bat plant, Tacca chantrieri, was common on the edge of therainforest, and was one of the most exciting plants we were to encounter inXishuangbanna. Augustine Henry collected this spectacular perennial near Simao.

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