Notes and Quotes on the History and Origins of theAmur Chokecherry (Prunus maackii)Maackii, amurensis, ussuriensis-these andcertain other specific epithets, or variants ofthem, appear m the scientific names of manyspecimens in the Living Collections of theArnold Arboretum. There is even a genus

Maackia, the type species of which is Maackiaamurensis. All are linked by a story thatcombines plant exploration with the inter-national intrigue and politics of a centuryand a quarter ago, intrigue and politics thatled to the discovery, and eventually to thecultivation, of Prunus maackm, the Amurchokecherry. How? Perhaps the commentsmade in Horticulture magazine in 1912 bythe Midwestern horticulturist, E. O. Orpet,give us the best excuse to explore the issuessurrounding the origins of Prunus maackii.Orpet wrote as follows:

Prunus maackii

Surprises come to all of us who have eyes tosee, and the other day when visiting Mr.William Constantme Egan at "Egandale,"his estate m Highland Park, Illinois, byinvitation to see his "Russian May Day"trees m full bloom, it was a revelation

indeed, and yet a puzzle to explam how it isthat so good a thmg, with all the help Mr.Egan has given it m the way of publicity,should be practically unknown m cultiva-tion, certainly unhsted m catalogues, andgiven only scant notice m Bailey’s Cyclo-pedia.The trees with Mr. Egan are rapid m

growth, with perfect pendulous habit for aspecimen or lawn tree, and they are m fullbloom with the shad-bush, which most ofus regard as the harbmger of the floweringtrees. The whole tree was covered with the

spikes of bloom, these bemg as large as andmuch more abundant than our Prunus sero-

tina, and the sweet fragrance can be noticed

many yards away. A very happy and mstruc-tive combination is obtained by the plantingof P maackm, P. padus and the natme P. sero-tma in the same group, thus having theEuropean, Russian, and Amencan BirdCherries, no two of which flower together.When asked as to seeds, Mr Egan said it wasvery hard to get as the birds carried them alloff. There is compensation m this, however,for we noticed the young trees coming upspontaneously m the vicinity presumablyfrom seed carned by birds.

It would appear from other cultivatedtrees of P maackm, that it does not bloomfor at least twelve years from seed; we findthat this is so with specimens here in LakeForest and in Lake Geneva, but after they dobegin, it is a contmual May Day feast, andwe doubt not that in the future, when betterknown, Prunus maackii will figure in thelandscape to a marked degree. The writer isfree to confess personally that not in tenyears has any tree or shrub made as great an

impression at first sight, hence the presentnote.

The first week m November last, Mr.

Dunbar pointed out in Highland Park, Roch-ester, N. Y., Lomcera maackm in fruit,bearing as profuse as we see it in L. mor-rows, m August. There are few shrubs

fruiting in November, and this had a verydistinct decorative value. We have youngplants now raised from a few seeds gatheredat that time, but this again is a plant we donot find in catalogues; m other words it

can’t be bought.It appears that there was once a Maackia

amurensis, now reduced to Cladrastis. Thethree plants under note are from Mand-schuna, and were described by Ruprecht. Weare wondering who Maack was. Perhapssome one from the Arboretum can tell us.

In this particular year when we are all

talking about hardmess or otherwise of alloutdoor thmgs, it is good to be able to report

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so favorably on a seemingly new tree, origi-nally distributed by Prof. J. L. Budd of Ames,Iowa, and said to be the hardiest farthest northof all Chemes with a very marked horticul-tural value as a decorative tree.

-Excerpted from Horticulture,Volume 15, Number 21 (May25, 1912), page 755.

A Case of Misplaced Enthusiasm?

Messrs. Orpet and Egan, among others,would have been chagrined to read the fol-lowing information in an article by CharlesSprague Sargent that was published in Gardenand Forest in 1888. Discussmg a very-early-flowering variety of Prunus padus (like Prunusmaackii a bird cherry from Manchuria), Sar-gent reported that a specimen m the Arbo-retum’s collections

was raised from seed sent many years ago tothe Arnold Arboretum from the St. Peters-

burg [Leningrad] garden as Prunus Maackii,a Manchurian Bird Cherry, with pubescent

foliage and young branches, while those ofthis plant are quite glabrous and show notrace of the glandular dots which cover theunder surface of the leaves of that species.

While they might have failed to see the bythen decades-old Garden and Forest article,Orpet and Egan no doubt did see a much laterone-which may also have been written bySargent-in the Bulletin of Popular Infor-mation (now called Arnoldia~, in 1917, thoughchances are they already knew the unhappytruth it revealed. In the later article, an anon-ymous author confesses, m describing a spec-imen of Prunus padus var. commutata in theArboretum’s collections, that

The seed from which this plant was raisedwas sent from the Botamc Garden at Petro-

grad [Leningrad] m 1878, mcorrectly asPrunus Maackm, under which name theyoung plants were distributed from theArboretum, and as Prunus Maackii it is stillcultivated and much esteemed m some Illi-nois gardens.

Maackia amurensis var. buergen m the Arnold Arboretum. Left: habit, nght: close-up of leaves and an mflorescence.Maackia is one of the many plant taxa named after Richard K Maak. Photograph by Herbert W. Gleason From theArchives of the Arnold Arboretum.

Opposite. Drawing of the leaves and an mflorescence of Prunus maackm From Flora Sylvatica Koreana, by TakenoshmNakai (Part 5, 1916).

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The Arboretum’s records on the seeds sentfrom Leningrad seem to be lost. In 1915, how-ever, it did receive "Seed" of Prunus padusvar. commutata from none other than E. O.

Orpet of Lake Forest, Illinois. No doubt therehad been an interesting exchange of lettersbetween him and Sargent in the three yearssince his piece on "Prunus maackii" hadappeared in Horticulture. The Arnold Arbo-retum did receive three authentic plants ofPrunus maackii from Leningrad in 1878,however, one of which survived until 1946,when it had to be removed because it was in

poor condition.

Fortunately, the two taxa can easily be dis-tinguished from each other. The followingchart should help expose any specimens ofPrunus padus var. commutata still masquer-ading as Prunus maackii:

Richard Karlovich Maak

The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia states thatRichard Karlovich Maak was "Born Aug. 23(Sept. 9), 1825, in Arensburg, present-dayKingissepp, Estonian SSR; died Nov. 13 (25),1886, in St. Petersburg." He was, the Ency-clopaedla continues, a "Russian naturalistand explorer of Siberia and the Far East." (InEnglish translation, the Encyclopaedia ren-ders the surname "Maak," not "Maack" asmost other sources do.) (

"In 1853, Maak took part in the expeditionwhich first described the orography, geology,and population of the basin of the Viliui,Olekma, and Chona rivers" the great workcontinues. "He studied the valleys of theAmur (1855-56) and Ussun (1859) rivers." Anaccount of Maak’s work in the Amur valley,

The leaves of Prunus maackm Photograph from theArchives of the Arnold Arboretum.

Puteshestvie na Amur, sovershennoe po ras-poriazheniiu Sibirskogo otdela Russkogogeograficheskogo obshcheskogo obshchestvav 1855 godu, was published m St. Petersburgin 1859. The title is usually given in Englishas Journey to Amur in 1855. Here, at least inbrief outline, is an answer to E. O. Orpet’squery.Emil Bretshneider, the Russian biographer,

tells us more. Maak, he says,studied natural sciences at the St. Peters-

burg University, took his degree of Candi-date, m 1849, and m 1852 was appomtedProfessor of Natural Sciences at the Gym-nasmm of Irkutsk. Subsequently he becameDirector of that Gymnasium, and from 1868to 1879, he was Supenntendent of all schoolsm Eastern Siberia. He died at St. Petersburg,

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November 13, 1886.Maak described his first expedition down

the Amur and back m a book entitled:

IOURNEY ON THE AMUR, IN 1855 (in Rus-sian), published in 1859, accompamed withan Atlas containing maps, views and draw-ings of plants.The expedition left Irkutsk in April 1855,

and proceeded by the ordmary way to Ner-chmsk. Here, at the discharging of theNercha into the Shilka, they found a greatraft prepared for them, on which theyembarked on the 5th of May. Albazin, May26, stay till 31st.-On August 8, the expe-dition arrived at the post Marinsk, near theKidzi Lake and remained there till August14. Then back up the Amur River, reachedAigun October 11, spent a month there. OnNovember 12, started on horse back, for theAmur was frozen, following the river valley.Ust Strelka, December 30, Irkutsk January16, 1856.As on this river journey frequent stops

were made, sometimes for several days,Maak had a favourable opportumty for

making botamcal and zoological collec-tions. The plants gathered by him m theAmur valley, in 1855, were determmed anddescribed by Maximowicz m his PnmitiaeFlorae Amurensis.

The Amur River

The Amur River (Hei-lung Chiang in Chinese)is a river of eastern Asia that forms the

’present border between the Soviet Union andChina (Manchuria, or Heilongjiang). Flowinggenerally southeastward, the Amur is nearly1,800 miles in length. (Counting the eShilka-Onon system, the Amur would be2,700 miles in length.) It did not always formthe frontier between the two countries, how-ever. Before 1858, when China ceded all landsnorth of the Amur and east of the Ussuririvers to Russia by the Treaty of Aigun, theChinese claimed both of its banks. Russianshad first reached the Amur area in the Sev-enteenth Century, but by the Treaty of Ner-chinsk (1689) had yielded it to the Chinese.

Russians began to colonize the area again inthe Nineteenth Century. Richard Maak, thebotanist, was part of that second wave.

Enter Perry McDonough Collins

Only a few months after Richard Maakexplored the Amur River, an American, PerryMcDonough Colhns, having travelled thelength of Russia eastward from Moscow,drifted down the Amur on a barge providedby Siberian officials, the first American tonavigate the Amur from its source to itsmouth. A businessman and promoter, Col-lins had managed to get himself appointedthe official "American Commercial Agent tothe Amoor River." Attracted by the poten-tialities he saw for American trade in theAmur region, he went there to see for him-self, and on behalf of the United States gov-ernment. Like other Americans of the time,Collins was afflicted with "Russian fever."

Eventually, the era of good feeling betweenthe United States and Russia would be

capped by the sale of "Russian America"(Alaska) to the United States in 1867.

In an account of his travels, prepared forthe United States Congress (A Voyage Downthe Amoor, origmally published in 1857, andreprinted by the University of WisconsinPress in 1962 under the title, Siberian Journey:Down the Amur to the Pacific, 1856-1857),Collins captured a moment of change inczarist Russia’s eastward expansion anddevelopment of Siberia. Fresh from the devel-opmg frontier of his own country, Collinssaw Russian activities in the Amur regionthrough approving eyes. "Siberia is compara-tively a free country," he wrote.

There are no landed proprietors, no serfdom.The land belongs to the Crown, and is givento the settlements or villages m the countryor to individuals in cities. Public sentimentand speech are quite free also; in fact, therems of government seem to set lightly onher people. The people are hardy and robust,accustomed, like our own frontiersmen, to

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a rough and active life, have the rifle anduse it well, as the mountains of furs andskins seen in the cities and market-towns

fully attest.

Collins described the mighty Amur interms any American could have understood:

The river is truly a grand one, and since wepassed the Zea, more and more resemblingthe Mississippi, and since we passed the Son-gahree, and now the Ousuree [Ussuri], in

many places with its cut and crumblingshores, falhng-in timber, and the muddinessof its waters, and its huge sandbars, theresemblance has become almost perfect.From the Songahree the Amoor is certainly

a more considerable river in breadth than the

Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio.The expanse of water, the numerous islands,and the many navigable chutes, some of themthirty miles in extent, must give it more

breadth than the Mississippi. As for distance,above the Ousuree the river is divided intotwo parts, one-the right-usually navigated,into which falls the Ousuree, deep, and aboutthe size of the Ohio; the other, broad andfilled with islands, bars, and chutes, certainlyas large as the Mississippi above Memphis,and looking very like it.

Charles Vevier, who edited the 1962

reprinting of Collins’s book, summarized thepolitical situation of the Amur region duringthe 1850s in the following clear terms: "Eco-nomic opportunity in this unknown region... was grasped in a Russian fist which now,after some two hundred years of negotiation,had unclenched, spreading its fingers overthe Amur region, the Ussuri River area eastto the Pacific coast, Northern China, Sak-halin, and Japan." There was at least onebenign result of Russia’s thrust into easternAsia, a flood of plant material new to botanyand horticulture. Richard Maak alone dis-covered forty-two new taxa in the Amur andUssuri river valleys on the two expeditionshe made to the region during the 1850s, thefirst in 1855, the second in 1859. The genus

Maackia was among the new taxa, as was the

species Prunus maackii. It was the year afterMaak’s first expedition to "Amur-land" thatChina, in the city of Aigun, relinquished allclaim to territory north of the Amur and eastof the Ussuri. Two years later (1860), Russiaestablished the town of Vladivostok at thesoutheasternmost extremity of its newlysecured territory.

Professor Sargent & Son in Amur-land

Forty-three years later, Professor CharlesSprague Sargent, the first director of theArnold Arboretum-accompanied by his son,A. Robeson Sargent, and the naturalist-writer,John Muir of California-travelled to theAmur region in search of plants. They leftthe United States on May 29, 1903, on a six-month around-the-world tour, arriving in

Russia on August 1st and the Amur region adozen days later. The journey went well forthe most part until the travellers arrived inManchuria and Siberia. There, they had tospend days at a time on hot, crowded trains,unable even to change their clothes. The foodwas abominable; at Harbin, Manchuria, Muirdeveloped a severe case of food poisoning.These hardships, plus a profound differenceof temperament between Muir and the elder

Sargent that intensified during the trip,prompted Muir to strike out alone once theparty had escaped Siberia and Manchuria. Anewspaper interview with Robeson Sargentand private accounts of the trip by Muirfollow.

Prof. Sargent Garners Rare Specimens ofEastern Flora

His Recent Expedition to Russia, andThrough Siberia, Will Be of Vast Benefit toPlant Collection at Arnold Arboretum

Prof. Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum,has just retumed from a 6 mos.’ tour ofRussia and Siberia.

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The journey was undertaken by Prof.Sargent for the purpose of securing anexhaustive collection of tree and plant spec-imens, and m this arduous task he wasassisted by his son, A. R[obeson]. Sargent,the landscape architect.More than 8000 bulbs, seeds and roots

were the result of the expedition, and whileit will require many months for develop-ment to reveal the exact value of the collec-

tion, the professor is sure that many rarespecimens of eastern flora have been gath-ered and the success of this mission is a

question beyond cavil.

The party left New York May 29, andentered the land of the czar Aug. 1.

Several weeks were devoted to the Cnmea,where the younger Sargent was charmedwith the landscape effects of the gardensattached to the imperial palace, pron-ouncing them surpassed only by the craft ofthe Italian landscape gardener."The most superb thing m nature that

Russia had to offer," said he,

was the voluptuous floral display of Mt Kasbek,a spur of the Caucasus range, where 10,000 ftabove the sea level the luxurious profusion ofwild flowers was astoundmg.

Perry McDonough Collms’s map of Amur River basin as it was when he made his tnp through the area m 1857 AnAmencan, Collins floated down the 1,800-mile waterway on a barge a year or two after the Russian botamst RichardK. Maak made the same tnp on a raft, discovenng, among other plants, Prunus maackn. (Amur is spelled ‘Amoor"on Collms’s map. The Amur reminded Collins of the Mississippi, and its tnbutary the Ussun ("Ousuree" on Collms’smap), of the Ohio. China, by the Treaty of Aigun ("Igoon" here), ceded all lands north of the Amur and east of theUssun to Russia m 1858 (An "X" has been added to mdicate the location of Haerbm, Manchuna, from which B. V.Skvortzov sent seeds of Prunus maackn to the U.S. Plant Introduction Station m 1940 Map courtesy of the BostonAthenaeum.

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Every conceivable color was there to be found,and yet the blendmg was m such perfect har-mony that It consdtuted a color scheme wellworth cultrvaung m landscape gardemng, andone scarcely credW able to accident aloneMy one ambruon is to reproduce the effect m

America

We entered Siberia by way of the Chita branchof the railway and spent 28 mghts upon the tram,dunng 10 of which we did not remove ourclothmg, ocvmg to the miserable sleepmg caraccommodauons

In Russia every traveler takes his bed clothmgcvW him, and through ignorance of this customwe found ourselves m a sorry phght Often whezebeddmg could not be hired, we were compelledto dnve the streets all mght

I was impressed with the vast forests andbroad steppes of Srbena. and as we sped over theArmor R R., the ongmal one of the country, wepassed many trams filled with Russian convictsThey were crowded into small box cars, hghtedwith tmy barred and grated windowsAt Harbm, rn Manchuna, we found the Rus-

sran government was secretly mobihzmg hertroops, and everybody professed behef m the per-manent occupancy of that country by the czar’smmions Harbm is a new town and tenanted bysoldiers and Russian offic~als exclusively Themost mteresung town m Manchuna is Kabavosk

[r.e., Khabarovsk], a place of 5000 mhab~tantsand delrghtfully situated at the ~unctuze of theArmor and Usan nversWe expected to return from here to Harbm,

where the Eastern Chma R R commences, butwhile en route thrther a bndge went down with40 passengers and we were compelled to retraceour stepsFarmmg is quite pnmW ve m Srbena and agn-

cultural implements are most crude Wooden

plows are used and drawn by 12 yokes of oxenI was pleased to see, however, that Amencanimplements of agnculture are begmnmg to bemtroduced mto the country

The soil ~s fertile and with proper culuvat~onwould supply the world with wheat

Uehicles with 2 wheels are employed exclu-sively and the ox is ubiquitous as a draughtbeast

We had ample opportumty to study the people,for the Russian trader usually reaches the depotseveral days m advance of the departure of histram and there he sleeps and eats m the depot,carrymg his food and beddmg cmth him Theyare all disgustedly dirty and wear shoes made ofpelts and tcmsted tcnnne The beverage is mvan-ably tea, which is drunk with block bread Thenauonal mtoxicant is voyaka, which is sold bythe bottle, the law prohrbrUng its sale by theglass, and the purchaser gets glonously drunkthereon. It seems to be made of pure alcohol

Everybody smokes, the women usmg the cig-arette and, though I am admsed that universaldiscontent prevails, the people present an air ofsilent sausfacuonThe edyces are mostly block houses cvW h

thatched roofsLmmg is expensme, though rmlway fares are

ndiculously cheapThe better class of Russian women are the

handsomest m the world, but the military offl-cers do not present so fine an appearance as dothose of the German and Austnan armiesAside from the novelty and pleasure which the

tnp afforded, I feel that the benefit which willthereby accrue to the study of trees and plantsis of mcalculable value

-Boston Evening Record,December 29, 1903.

John Muir’s accounts consist of a letter tohis wife, Louisa ("Louie"), which he wrote inVladivostok, and hastily scribbled entries inhis diary. These give a vivid and decidedlymore candid picture of the unhappy condi-tions under which the party travelled thandid the newspaper account. Both the letterand diary excerpts are presented below withonly minor editing.

Letter

Vladivostok Aug. 19, 1903

Dear Louie After many short stops here &

there we are at last on the Pacific havingcrossed the whole vast breadth of Asia, &

now you don’t seem so dreadfully far. Wearrived yesterday morning very tired havingslept in our clothes the last 8 mghts & theheat has been trying 80 to 90° in the cars.& miserable uneatable food at the stationsmost of the[m]. Here it is delightfully cool-but the food is very poor. I’m resting todaywhile the Sargents are out botanizing. I sup-pose we will be here a few days longer. ThenSargent wants to [see] the Amour for a dayor two, thence back to Harbin, thence toMuken & thence to Pekmg which will

require 8 to 10 days more of rail riding ofmost wearisome sort, but with views ofwonderful regions their rocks scenery flora

people etc by way of compensation. I hadmade up my mind to leave the Sargents here

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& go to Japan Shanghai, etc as I long for thecool sea. But Sargent advises very stronglyagamst my going off alone & raises all sortsof objections, difficulty of arrangmg moneymatters etc. promises not to stay but a dayor two in Pekm or hot, dusty Mukden(suggestive name) So I suppose III go on withhim as far as Pekin or Shanghai-where I

hope to hear from you once more. The wholetrip has been exceedmgly interesting farmore so than anythmg I had read lead me toexpect. And now dear wife & babes Heavenbless you. How glad Ill be to get home. Loveto all. John Muir

Muir’s diary is even more revealing thanhis letter.

Diary

Aug 12 ... Mr Sargent & Son have decidedto give up the voyage down the Amour onacct of missing todays boat, tho anothersails m 4 or 5 days. Would go on alone butcan’t separate....

Aug 19. Sargents out botamzmg while I

read & work & rest. Would hke to leave for

Japan etc but Sargent wishes to go with himto pomt on the Amour & thence to MukdenPekm & Shanghai. 2 weeks more of miser-able rail travel m very enfeebled conditionbut I suppose I’ll get thro somehow & I willsee more of Manchuria.

Aug 20. In house all day resting.

Aug 21. The sea air reviving. Hope to leavethis eve 9. PM for Kabarovsk....

Aug 28. 6 A.M. In broad flat mostly cul-tivated. At Harbm 7 a.m. Bar[ometer] 600rainy Harbm is situated on river. Flat &

muddy streets. When dry fill in ruts & smk-holes the story of sea of mud. Large Govermtbmldings-mtended for large town. likemany others along the R.R. but Yankeeenterprise sadly wantmg or adventurousbuilders of homes. The whole country seemsa Government camp. Drive to so-called

garden restaurant 5 ms of the most hornble

streets for holes basins pits ridges & peaksmade chiefly of mud. Harbin on its large flatrain again and dark. Left Harbm at 2.30 forMukden. Ram at 2.45 in rich rolling treelessprame like country planted mostly to millet.

4:30 Bar 700. Same prairie sunflrs millet,melons etc. Still dark, ramy, extremly richsoils gl[acial] mud silt reformed in slowwater-few clumps of trees on horizon mudadobe houses thatch roofs mud corall walls,some corn.

6 P M universal ram Bar 850 DrippingChmamen herdmg cattle & horses here andthere some with umbrellas. Nearly all cul-tivated or m pasture The country is flatterthan 2 hrs ago. All looks like Illinois

29 aug. Bar 650, cldy. The same prairie &

crops. All Chmese horses poor & sore.

Groves & smgle trees here & there Willow

poplar tillia [Tiha] or elm mostly not a stoneto be seen Houses mud framework wood.The whole country beautiful m features oflow swells & ravines with hills dotted withtrees m dist. seems to have been cultivated

every mch of it time immemorial No mldflrsin it only weeds by waysides & m pasturesrose colored polygonum the showiest.Chmese here keep hogs wh they herd. Thelargest ever saw have enormous ears looklike baby elephants.

We are running back to [Kungchuhng]. 3bridges said to be washed out ahead.-gomgback all the way to Harbm. Dont know how

long may have to wait in that filthy place.Sargent seems pleased.

30 Aug. Still damp and cloudy & runningwearily back thru millet fields to Karbmwill probably get there this P.M. arrived at10 a.m Stay here until 3 P M when we againgo back 200 ms or so mto first mtns to N ofhere to botanize. A day or so while wairingrepairs on lme to Port Arthur None knowswhen they will be completed.

Start at 3.40 PM ram hazy muggy weather.Bar 650 has stood so from when we turned

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back. At 6 P.M Bar 800 Many on train goingthis way via Vladivostok to Pt. Arthur, wishwe were but of course Sargent wont & hehas me in his power

Arive Aug. 31 at station m the mtns 1600 ftEl at daybreak & in pouring rain, Crouch fora while back of brick wall then go to porchof restaurant where I lie on bench all day interrible pain. indigestion after 3 mos of

abommably cooked food. Start back to

horrid Harbin at 4 or 5 P M. Arrive Sep 1, at6 AM. After dreadful night of pam. I told S.that we wld probably be compelled to go viaVladivostok & Japan after all thus passing5 times ovr part of road on acct of the broken

bridges. He never seemed to think of mesick or well or of my studies only of his own.until he feared I might die on his hands andthus bother him-He was planning anotherbotanical trip to some point on the Sungari,going by Stmr & leaving me alone at somehotel or lodging house. But fortunatelylearned the R R might not be opened for aMo & that a stmr wld leave Vladivostock onthe 3d or 4th. So back N we went again thisEve Sept 1.

Sep 2. Still alive. Morphin to stupify pain& brandy to hold life.

Sep 3 arrived at old quarters in Vladivos-tock at 7 AM. after most painful days of allmy experience in this 0 Learn the steamersails at 3 PM. today. Robeson [Sargent] loseshis passport, & cant buy ticket or leavecountry. After big fuss went to Am consul& under his direction got out papers ena-

bling him to leave-got off at 6 P.M. & now

hope to get well.Ate a little supper & suffer no pain.

Sep 4 glorious to be free from pain. Arriveat San Won [Wonsan] beautiful harbor onKorean coast leave at night ...

From Korea, the party went to Japan andthence to China. At Shanghai, Muir and theSargents went their separate ways.

The Sargent-Muir Trip in Context

Manchuria and Siberia, separated by theAmur and Ussuri rivers, increasingly becamethe scene of international rivalries betweenthe time Maak and Collins, on the one hand,and the Sargents and Muir, on the other, trav-elled there. They also became the scene ofintense botanical collecting. Frank N. Meyer,for instance, was in Siberia and Manchuriain late 1906 and early 1907. He was thereagain in late 1912 and early 1913. On bothoccasions he passed through Harbin andMukden. During the first of those tripsMeyer also travelled in northern Korea. OnAugust 21, 1903, he collected a pyramidalwild cherry with bright-green foliage thatAlfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretummuch later named Prunus x meyeri in hishonor. (Two days after Meyer made the col-lection, he recorded a killing frost.) Meyerreported seeing "Only two or three trees ...during the whole trip through northern Koreaand only two had a few seeds."When he described Prunus x meyeri,

Rehder had suggested that it might actuallybe a hybrid. "Prunus Meyeri seems in all itscharacters intermediate between P. Maackii

Rupr. and P. Maximowiczii Rupr.," he wrotein the journal of the Arnold Arboretum in1920, "and is probably a hybrid betweenthese species, both of which grow in northernKorea and in the same regions, as specimenscollected by Mr. [E. H.] Wilson on theTumen-Yalu divide on two subsequent daysshow."

In 1928, the Russian botanist B. V. Skvortzovreported two forms of Prunus maackii, Prunusmaackii forma rotunda and Prunus maackiiforma oblonga, from northern Manchuria, inthe Lingnam Science Journal. In 1939, froma forest near Hsiaoling, Manchuria (a townon the Trans-Siberian Railroad through whichthe Sargents and John Muir must have passedseveral times in their wanderings), Skvortzovcollected seeds of Prunus maackii, which he

23

sent to the U. S. Department of Agricultureand from which came the scions that pro-duced the trees now growing in the ArnoldArboretum.The Sargents and Muir travelled in Man-

churia during a period of intense rivalrybetween Russia and Japan through whichChina was drawn to Russia (and Russia toChina) in an alliance against Japan. As partof this process, Russia had begun to build theTrans-Siberian Railroad in 1891, to forge alink between Vladivostok and Russia proper;Russia was able to exact from China aconcession that part of the line run throughManchuria in order to protect the AmurRiver frontier. The alliance between Russiaand China was strengthened by Japan’s vic-tory over China in the Sino-Japanese War in1895. Harbin (or Haerbin) owed its origin tothe construction of the Manchurian sectionof the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the "ChineseEastern Railway," over which the Sargentsand Muir travelled. Before 1896, Harbin hadbeen a minor fishing village and markettown; thereafter, it became the constructioncenter for the Chinese Eastern Railway.Another railroad (on which the Sargents andMuir also travelled) was built southwardfrom Harbin to connect it with the Russian-

developed city of Port Arthur (Lushun) on theLiaotung Peninsula in southern Manchuria.Largely Russian-built, Harbin became a basefor Russian military operations in Man-churia during the Russo-Japanese War of1904-05, which broke out soon after the Sar-gents and Muir were in the area. After theRussian Revolution of 1917, Harbin becamea haven for Russian refugees; for a time, itwas the largest Russian city outside theSoviet Union. Most likely B. V. Skvortzovwas one of those refugees.

Summer Monsoons and Prunus maackii

The Sargent-Muir party chose a very poortime of year to travel in the Amur River

region of Siberia and Manchuria, at leastfrom John Muir’s point of view. While theywere there (mid-August through early Sep-tember), the summer monsoon was at its

height. On average, ten to sixty times moreprecipitation falls during the summer in theAmur region than during the winter. In thepeak monsoon months of July, August, andSeptember, 70 to 90 percent of a month’stotal may fall in only five or six days-up to9.5 inches of it in a single day. A. A. Borisov,in Climates of the U. S. S. R., reports that,"At Vladivostok 386 mm [ 15.3 inches] of pre-cipitation, 65% of the annual total, fall fromJune to September, but only 28 mm (5%) fallin winter." Summer floods, some of themvery destructive, are common. During theripening and harvesting of grain crops, theexcessive moisture affects the harvest

adversely. Muir’s "universal rain" seems anapt description. In the vicinity of Vladi-

vostok, a coastal city, the summer monsoonusually lasts for four to four and one-halfmonths, inland and northward for shorterperiods of time. Contributing also to Muir’smisery was the high humidity, which aver-ages 88 percent during the summer. Winters,on the other hand, are sunny and dry in theAmur region; snow cover is thin and persistsonly in the northermost parts of the region.Autumns are warm and dry.The climate of Harbin, which is only forty

or so miles northwest of Xiaoling (Hsiaoling), ),the town where B. V. Skvortzov collected theseeds he sent to the U. S. Department ofAgriculture in 1940, is similar to that of Win-nipeg, Canada, as the following table shows:

24

While Harbin and Winnipeg receive similaramounts of precipitation (577.4 mm [about23 inches] and 516.9 mm [about 20 inches]per year, respectively), the precipitation is

more evenly distributed from month tomonth in Winnipeg than it is in Harbin. Win-nipeg receives eight times more snow thandoes Harbin in an average winter (50 inchesversus 6.7 inches).Prunus maackii does best in moist, well

drained soil-perhaps reflecting the soakingsummer conditions of its native range. And,while very cold-hardy, it seems to be lessfrost resistant than Prunus padus, anotherearly-blooming species. Also, it may not taketo transplanting as well as some other spe-cies of tree, at least under certain conditions.

AcknowledgmentThe text of the John Muir letter and of thequotations from John Muir’s journal are pub-lished with the permission of the Muir-HannaTrust, Holt-Atherton Center for Western

Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton,California. Copyright © 1984 Muir-HannaTrust.

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Bretschneider, E. History of European Botanical Dis-covenes m China. London: Sampson Low, Mar-ston, 1898.

Collins, Perry McDonough. Sibenan fourney Down theAmur to the Pacific, 1856-1857 A new edW on ofA Voyage down the Amoor. Edited by CharlesVemer. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1962.

Egan, William C. Prunus maackn. Gardening, Volume6, Number 137, page 259 (May 15, 1898). [Eganseems to be referring to Prunus padus var. com-mutata.]

Lydolph, Paul E. Climates of the Soviet Union. In ~ WorldSurvey of Chmatology, Volume 7. Amsterdam,Oxford, and New York. Elsevier Scientific, 1977.

Orpet, E. O. Prunus Maackii. Horticulture, Volume 15,Number 21, page 755 (May 25, 1912). [Like Egan,Orpet seems to be referring to Prunus padus var.commutata.]

Sergeev, L. I., and K. A. Sergeeva. Characteristics of theannual cycle and the frost resistance of woodyplants. Proceedings of the Academy of Sciencesof the USSR (Botanical Sciences Secrion), Volume119, Numbers 1-6, pages 98-100 (1958). [Prunusmaackii, Prunus padus, and other trees andshrubs.] ]

Skvortzow, B. W. [Skvortzov, B. V.I. New plants fromnorth Manchuna, Chma. Lmgnam Science Journal,Volume 6, Number 3, pages 205-228 (1928).[Prunus maackm, page 211.]

Vanstone, D. E., and W. G. Ronald. Comparison of bare-root versus tree spade transplantmg of boulevardtrees. joumal of Arbonculture, Volume 7, Number10, pages 271-274. [Prunus maackii and threeother taxa of street trees.]

Waters, Gregory J. The Amur chokecherry. Horticulture,Volume 61, Number 2, pages 14-16 (January1983).