Writing to the London Garden, Mr. Maries says: "Many grand trees and shrubs must have been completely lost by the unmerciful cutting and burning of all vegetation on the hills in China; none but the toughest could possibly survive. Year after year they are lopped to the ground, and when the coarse grass gets too thick they burn, or if a tiger or leopard is in the mountain they burn again. This has been going on for centuries now. They never plant or take the slightest trouble to grow trees, and the result is bare, barren tracts of mountain land, once evidently forest, now useless. I visited Kuikiang Mountains in April, 1878, when the hills were covered with a growth of two or three years. I went to the same places in December the same year, and all was either cut or burnt. It was with the greatest difficulty I was able to get a few of the fine plants I found there the April before. Many of the plants when growing in England still bore the marks of the Chinese mountain fire."