Description

Playfair has somewhat delayed his answer to Hooker's letter of 7 Aug, but having reached the end of his second year in Peking [Beijing] his time has been taken up a great deal with final examinations in the language. When he wrote to ask Hooker what sort of plants he would prefer to have seeds of, he had not the slightest idea whether woody or herbaceous plants were considered most important. He regrets that he has turned his attention to the wrong class and has only the seeds of two trees to send: Koelreuteria paniculata and Xanthoceras sorbifolium. Playfair hopes, however, to spend another year in the north and shall endeavor to comply more intelligently with Hooker's wishes. He has in vain sought, from any trustworthy Chinamen, information on ginseng but finds that their spoken ideas are more extravagant and worthless than their written ones. Pages 1 and 4 of 4.

Description

Playfair has somewhat delayed his answer to Hooker's letter of 7 Aug, but having reached the end of his second year in Peking [Beijing] his time has been taken up a great deal with final examinations in the language. When he wrote to ask Hooker what sort of plants he would prefer to have seeds of, he had not the slightest idea whether woody or herbaceous plants were considered most important. He regrets that he has turned his attention to the wrong class and has only the seeds of two trees to send: Koelreuteria paniculata and Xanthoceras sorbifolium. Playfair hopes, however, to spend another year in the north and shall endeavor to comply more intelligently with Hooker's wishes. He has in vain sought, from any trustworthy Chinamen, information on ginseng but finds that their spoken ideas are more extravagant and worthless than their written ones. Pages 1 and 4 of 4.