A New Academy of Sciences in Western China

Abstract

THREE years ago there was organised in the Little Gorges near Chungking of Szechuan province an Academy of Sciences of Western China. This institute is supported primarily by private contributions. It has now an annual budget of 40,000 Mexican dollars. Research and survey work along the lines of geology and biology will be pursued in the Academy. At present, with the help of Dr. H. H. Hu, director of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology at Peiping, a herbarium and a botanical garden have been established by the Academy, with the view of exploring botanically all parts of that vast province and eastern Tibet, and collecting seeds, cuttings, and bulbs, etc., for planting in the botanical garden. It is intended shortly to establish a nursery where seeds and bulbs will be provided for sale or exchange. For example, the collector was instructed to collect seeds of Rehderodendron, a new genus of three species of ornamental trees of Styracaceae, recently described by Dr. Hu. Seeds of other interesting and ornamental plants will also be collected. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will be the first botanical institute in the United States of America to share a part of this collection. This year two parties have been sent out by that institute to collect herbarium specimens and seeds, one to eastern, another to southwestern Szechuan. The latter is exploring the bordering districts along the Szechuan-Yunnan-Tibet borderland. In the winter the collector will bring herbarium specimens and seeds to the Fan Institute for study and identification, as that institute has a large herbarium and a large botanical library, and furthermore a unique collection of some 17,000 photographs of the type-specimens of Chinese and other Asiatic countries taken in various European herbaria.