May 24.—I have just been witnessing one of those little miracles of Nature which have to be seen to be believed. About two weeks ago I called on my friend Arthur Sowerby to look at his weed-garden: he showed me some rock covered with a stonecrop which he had bron from Mokanshan, and as I thought I had already found this plant both in Weihaiwei and in the Hungjao count r, we tore off a handful of the herbage so that I could take it home for identification and experiment. Arrived hami I stuck the bare rootless stalks in a little mu placed on varioüs stones in my Japanese garde and forgot all about them for the tim being. Within 24 hours these limp twigs began throwing out tiny rootlets and stood straight up like a little company of soldiers! And now, within 14 days of having been placed on rocks, a number of these hardy warriors have bur out into a head of allow-blossom and all the rest are following suit just as fast as they can. I have looked up various books of reference but have been unable. so far, to find out exactly what variety this grand lithe plant can be. Mr. Garven in his "Wild. Flowers of North China" calls it Yellow Stonecrop and refers to it in his scientific Index as "Sedum from which I gather that even the lo authorities do not know precisely what to call it! The Chinese call it "Ching Tien," meaning Bright Weather or Heaven, just as you like to take it. The scientific name of Sedum comes. of course. from "sedeo—I sit"—which exacil: describes the habit of the plant: old English writers have called it "Wall-pepper," "Golden Stars" and "Live-forever"....all of which seer pretty apt names: my gardener says "thi belong weeds" and walks away disgusted. still insist on calling it a miracle,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.