Transplanting Botany to : The Cross-Cultural Experience of Chen Huanyong

William j. Haas

After studying at the Arnold Arboretum, a Chinese student returns to his homeland, becoming a leader in botanical work

Chen Huanyong (Woon-Young Chun/1 came ern Asia and northeastern North America to Boston in the autumn of 1915 to study at were closely related. This significantly im- the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University’s plied that the species of one region might museum of living trees. The arboretum, lo- grow well in the other. While Gray’s work cated on a 265-acre site in Jamaica Plain, provided theoretical underpinning for Massachusetts, about five miles from the Sargent’s horticultural interest in East Asia, center of Boston, was set up in 1872 with it was the flourishing of seeds sent to Sargent funding from the trust created by the legacy by Emil Bretschneider (1833-1901), a Russian of New Bedford merchant James Arnold. A physician in , which gave Sargent the condition of the gift was that the university practical demonstration that plants collected

"establish and support an Arboretum ...* in China would be viable in America.3 which shall contain as far as is practicable, all Sargent began slowly to collect Chinese the trees ... either indigenous or exotic, species; he acquired specimens through Euro- which can be raised in the open air...."Z pean institutions and through a trip of his Trees from Asia were heavily represented at own to China. In 1907 he hired Ernest H. the arboretum, and trees of Chinese origin Wilson (1876-1930) from the British horti- thrived there. The new Chinese student cultural firm Veitch & Sons, to collect for the flourished at the arboretum also. Freshly arboretum in western China. These fabulous graduated from the New York State School of collections from western China made him Forestry at Syracuse University, Chen had and the arboretum world-famous. Later, already spent five years in the United States Sargent obtained the services of the collector since leaving his native . Now he and ethnologist Joseph F. C. Rock (1884-- would spend four more years in the United 1962).4 The arboretum’s collections of plants States, doing graduate work among the trees from China increased rapidly.5 But it was not at the arboretum. just acquisition of Chinese collections that By the time Chen arrived in 1915, Charles made the arboretum an important center. Sprague Sargent (1841-1927), director of the The study of these collections, especially by arboretum from 1873 until his death, had es- Alfred Rehder (1863-1949), assistant at and tablished the Arnold Arboretum as a center later curator of the arboretum’s herbarium, for the study of Chinese trees. Sargent’s in- also contributed to knowledge of the flora of terest in East Asian species was inspired by China. Asa Gray’s observation that the floras of east- Just as Americans had to travel to European 10

herbaria to study American plants, Chinese Arnold Arboretum botanists like John G. had to come to American and European insti- Jack (1896-1935), an assistant professor of tutions to study Chinese plants. Unless they dendrology (the study of trees) made Hillcrest used the research collections in Western a center for diffusing horticultural knowl- herbaria, Chinese botanists would have had edge by giving lectures there during the to begin work on the flora of their country summer. It was probably on these occasions from scratch. The arboretum had the strong- that Jack developed a friendship with his est collections of Chinese trees in the world. future protege, Chen.9 The friendship must Chen came to Harvard specifically to use that have been heightened by mutual interest in material, explaining that "it would take me a China’s flora; Jack had gone to China in 1905 lifetime of travel to study what I can find out at his own expense to collect specimens for here about Chinese trees in a few years."6 the Arnold Arboretum. 10 Chen’s commitment to forestry as a career Education in the United States, 1909-1919 deepened after his first summer at Hillcrest. It was Marion Case of Weston, Massachu- Chinese students with an ardent desire to setts, who first alerted Chen to the impor- strengthen their country often claimed that tance of the Arnold Arboretum. In 1909, the subject they studied was the one most Case, daughter of a Providence, Rhode Island, crucial to China’s future. In the January 19111 merchant, used land she had inherited to issue of the Chinese Students’ Monthly, the start a small institution in Weston for experi- organ of the Chinese Students’ Alliance, mentation in farming and education. Known Chen explained why "Forestry in China" was as Hillcrest Gardens, it is now the Case Es- important. He vividly described the cancer of tates of the Arnold Arboretum. Chen had deforestation, a scourge which contributed to come from Shanghai to the United States in flood, famine, and unfavorable climate. 1909 and enrolled in courses in forestry and China was once an Eden of luxuriant forests entomology at the Massachusetts Agricul- and crystal streams, but indiscriminate re- tural College in Amherst. In 1910, Case hired moval of trees had laid bare entire provinces. him as her summer assistant. For five sum- Fertile topsoil had been washed from hill- mers between 1910 and 1919, Chen helped sides and carried to the sea. Chen called for Case manage and teach the young boys em- education as the antidote to "the poison of ployed at Hillcrest. The boys liked Chen popular ignorance." Schools should be estab- because, in her view, the "quiet courteous lished to train men for a forest service. Using ways he had inherited from his Spanish the advantages of Western science, a govern- mother appealed to them."7 ment bureau cooperating with the people Chen’s success in the Hillcrest job may could succeed in reforestation. Chinese stu- have been as much due to his father’s influ- dents should arouse national interest in a ence as to his mother’s. Chen’s parents proba- movement for reforestation.ll bly met while his father was in Cuba as a It was an exciting time for Chinese stu- diplomatic representative of the Qing court. dents everywhere. In October 1911, the Xin- The couple had fourteen children; Chen, the hai revolution overthrew the ; thirteenth, was born in Hong Kong in 1890. by 1912 there was a new Chinese republic. Some time later, the family moved to Shang- Chen’s ambition in forestry required more hai, where Chen’s father taught English at the specialized training. In 1912 he transferred Thomas Hanbury School, a boys’ school from the Massachusetts Agricultural College named after the British businessman who to the New York State School of Forestry at financed it. Chen’s summer work at Hillcrest Syracuse University. The school had excel- was similar to what his father did towards the lent facilities, including a forestry summer end of his career.8 camp in the Catskill Mountains, which Chen 11I

attended in 1914.12 "unbroken save by the murmur of low-dron- While completing his undergraduate train- ing prayers and the tinkles of temple bells."14 ing at Syracuse, Chen became active in the In "Bitter Strength"-a translation of the Chinese Students’ Alliance, which had chap- word coolie [kuli]-Chen used fiction to cry ters throughout the United States. Chen was out against Westerners’ mistreatment of the a delegate to the alliance’s ninth annual con- Chinese. A rickshaw coolie in the British ference, held at Cornell University in Ithaca colony of Hong Kong spends a day striving to during the last week of August 1913. Dele- earn money for his family. By day’s end, the gates participated in vocational conferences, weakened coolie has obtained just the athletics, literary events, entertainments, a amount he needs to bring home to his aged banquet, a picnic, and elections; Chen was mother. A British infantryman demands to be elected to the Chinese Students’ Monthly’s taken to the barracks where he is late for his English Editorial Board. Delegates also dem- return. The coolie pleads exhaustion, but the onstrated their concern with China’s interna- half-drunk soldier tells him to "run like the tional relations. There was anxiety in China devil or have his head broken." On the way, because the "consortium," an international the coolie’s muscles fail and he drops the cart. banking syndicate, was forcing loans on Cursing, the infantryman’s "right hand shot China and monopolizing its loan business. In out, and the dirk sank deeply into the helpless 1910, the consortium was a four-power affair, body." The coolie’s corpse is disposed of in Britain, France, Germany, and the United the waters off the bund.’s States; in 1912, six-power: Japan and Russia After graduating the forestry school at were added. At Ithaca, students’ alliance Syracuse in 1915, Chen enrolled at Harvard’s delegates staged a mock parliament, a scaled- Bussey Institution for Research in Applied down version of the Chinese house of repre- Biology. Rather than become a forester, he sentatives in session. The main business was was going to become a dendrologist. The an impeachment hearing for the premier be- Arnold Arboretum did not officially offer cause he had concluded the "Five Power instruction, but students could arrange to loan."’3 take courses with John Jack and work at the Over the next year Chen revealed growing arboretum by registering at the Bussey. That distress over the vagaries of cross-cultural year, another Chinese student, Qian Songshu experience and contact. He wrote two short (S. S. Chien, 1883-1965), also registered at the stories on this theme for the Chinese Stu- Bussey to work with Jack. While studying at dents’ Monthly. The fictional "East Is East the arboretum, Qian published in the New and West Is West" was most likely autobio- England Botanical Club’s journal, Rhodora. graphical. A young Shanghai man embarks For this publication, Chen later celebrated on a voyage to study in the United States, him as "the first Chinese botanist to describe leaving behind his fiancee, Miss Mei, "beau- new species of plants."’6 The following year, tiful, not in the striking beauty of the Ameri- Chen and Qian were joined at the arboretum can girl, but in that serene and saintly loveli- by yet another Chinese student, Zhong Xin- " ness so characteristic of the girls of the East." xuan (H. H. Chung/." John Jack was good at Attending a small New England college, the teaching, and all his students adored him. He young man adopts Western styles and habits. went out of his way to help them, often He meets a Chinese woman, a graduate of paying their wages for work at the arboretum Wellesley College more suited to his newly out of his own pocket or arranging Harvard Americanized tastes. He marries her and does loans for them. He arranged a loan for Chen not return to China. Back in China, Miss at the beginning of 1916. Mei’s faith and hope are crushed by the deser- Chen was more adventurous than most of tion. She goes to live in a nunnery, its silence the dozen or so Chinese pursuing graduate 12

studies in various Harvard departments. arboretum and put it in a larger context; Unlike his compatriots, who resided in Chinese had been coming to America to graduate dormitories or near school, Chen study for twenty-five years. At present there lived first on St. Botolph Street and later on were 1,600 other Chinese studying in Amer- Gainsborough Street, in an "artsy" section of ica, most intending their studies to be of Boston’s Back Bay-only a stone’s throw direct benefit to China.19 from the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci- During every semester of his four years at ety, Symphony Hall, and the New England Harvard, Chen registered for John Jack’s for- Conservatory of Music.’8 During his third estry courses. His studies went well and in year in Boston, the Boston Globe interviewed the spring of his final year, 1919, he received the cosmopolitan Chen, the student who had one of Harvard’s Sheldon Travelling Fellow- come "From China to Boston to Study Chi- ships to collect plants in southern China. The nese Trees." Chen explained his work at the day Chen graduated, Charles Sargent called

Professor Tohn G. Tack (at left) and three of his Chinese students examining a black maple (Acer saccharum var. nigrum). The student on the right has been identified as Chen Huanyong. Taken in the Arnold Arboretum during the summer of 1917. Photograph from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. 13

the talented student into his office and gruffly became founding president of Canton Chris- advised him: "Chen, your botanical career is tian College in 1893. Later renamed Lingnan just commencing." Sargent told him to go University, the College was modeled on the home and familiarize himself with plants in Presbyterian-founded Protestant Syrian Col- the field; unexplored Hainan Island would be lege, now known as the American University best. The Sheldon Fellowship would cover of Beirut. Henry visited Hainan in the 1880s the work for a year.2° Everything was set until and paid special attention to the aborigines; the University bursar made an unusual he found some young aborigine women demand: part of Chen’s fellowship had to be "quite handsome in spite of the blue lines turned over for immediate repayment of the tattooed over their faces."23 Harvard loan that John Jack had arranged. With "the foolhardiness of young man- Fortunately, the dean of the Bussey Institu- hood" and a handbook for explorers, Chen tion, entomologist William Morton Wheeler, went to Hainan alone. Malaria was a con- interceded on Chen’s behalf. Wheeler was stant threat, and after nine months with the conducting his own world-wide taxonomic aborigines, he was stricken. His fever study of ants (this later included ants of reached 105 degrees, his body was covered China) and recognized the value of having with sores caused by leeches and malnutri- Chen collect Chinese plants for the arbore- tion, and his left hand swelled "to the size and tum.2’ color of a boxing glove." He was carried out of Since Sargent wished to expand his pro- central Hainan’s Five Finger Mountains on a gram for acquiring Chinese specimens, he stretcher. arranged to use Chinese students trained at Chen recuperated in Nanjing and packed the arboretum as collectors after they re- his collections of plants, insects, and reptiles turned to China. Chen Huanyong was the for shipment to Boston. Disaster struck. The first to return to China in this role. The plan shipment burned in a fire at the Shanghai was for Chen to leave for China in September, warehouse of the China Merchants Steam- do fieldwork there for a year and then return ship Navigation Company. At least Chen to the States for a year to study and distribute still had the collections of Hainan material he the material he had collected. Sargent wanted retained in Nanjing. Some time later, a Chen to devote all his energy to collecting commissioner of the Chinese maritime cus- woody plants and seeds, but Jack encouraged toms offered Chen facilities for making col- Chen to broaden his scope to include herba- lections in northwestern province. In ceous plants and insects. The trip would be 1922, Chen, Qian Songshu, Qin Renchang financed by Chen’s fellowship, subscriptions (R. C. Ching), and "old Yao," a retired collec- for the collection of special material, and sale tor who had assisted Augustine Henry, an of specimens after Chen returned. John Jack Irish physician in the Imperial Chinese Cus- touted the quality of the specimens Chen toms Service, went to Hubei province and would make in an effort to get more financ- collected together. Chen and Qian’s herba- ing. He asked Professor B. L. Robinson to ceous specimens were sent to the Gray Her- purchase material from Chen’s expedition for barium ; Chen’s woody specimens, to the Harvard’s Gray Herbarium.22 Arnold Arboretum. Chen considered this to Located off the South China coast opposite be "partial atonement" for his "Hainan fail- the province of Guangdong, Hainan Island ure."Za was tropical and rough. Westerners had al- ready published memoirs of explorations The Nanjing Years, 1920-1927 there. The first to traverse the island was the Chen began his teaching career in Nanjing in Reverend Benjamin Henry, a Presbyterian 1920. During the first decades of twentieth- missionary from western Pennsylvania who century China two separate educational sys- 14

tems were in place, one run by Chinese, the especially biology. In 1922, this strength led other run by Christian missionaries. At the the Science Society of China to establish its elementary and secondary level, Chinese and biological laboratory in Nanjing, staffed foreign schools were seldom concerned with mainly with Southeastern University fac- each other, but at the college and university ulty. Southeastern botany professor Hu Xian- level, there was competition for faculty and su (H. H. Hu, 1894-1968) became head of the funding. Competition was keenest in Beijing, laboratory’s botany division. Unlike Chen, Guangzhou, and Nanjing, cities having both Hu Xiansu had returned to China for seven Chinese and Christian universities. Chen’s years between finishing his undergraduate first teaching position was at the University degree at the University of California at of Nanking, a Protestant mission school Berkeley in 1916 and starting graduate train- administered by American officers in Nan- ing at Harvard in 1923. When Hu returned to jing and American trustees in New York City. China in 1916 he began teaching at the Nan- The University inculcated its students with jing Higher Normal School, the predecessor Christianity through required attendance at institution of Southeastern University. Chen religious classes and chapel. Chinese faculty felt that it was because of his influence that were integrated into the Christian program Hu decided to study at the Arnold Arbore- by having to lead the weekly Bible study class. tum.’~ When it was Chen’s turn to preach, he chose Hu’s first direct contact with the arboretum "The Beauty of Forests and Poetry" for his was through correspondence with Charles topic. He enchanted the school’s teachers and Sargent. Sending specimens was a standard students without saying a word about the way of contacting eminent botanists. In 1920, Bible. Chen’s sophisticated protest probably Hu sent Sargent a collection of woody speci- coincided with protests from Chinese stu- mens from Jiangxi province in exchange for dents against requirements for religious edu- their identification.29 Just as Chen had done cation. In any case, after Chen took his turn, with the Hubei collections, he sent to the ar- weekly scholarly talks replaced the Bible- boretum, Hu built up research collections at study class.25 Southeastern by attaching Sargent’s identifi- Chen was discontented at the University of cations to an identically numbered duplicate Nanking: "I am Chinese; I don’t like to work set he retained in Nanjing. in a Christian school."26 Before long, he Hu enrolled at the Bussey Institution from switched over to the recently established and September 1923 to June 1925 and took four Chinese-run National Southeastern Univer- forestry courses with John Jack.~° In the same sity, also in Nanjing. Its president, Guo Bing- way he had helped Chen, Jack arranged a wen (P. W. Kuo), the first Chinese to get a university loan for Hu. But Hu could not Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Teachers borrow as much money as Chen had because College, recruited professors from the best of Chen’s Harvard loan had not yet been repaid. the "returned students."2’ Although South- An officer of the university criticized Jack for eastern’s finances were shaky, its superb fac- arranging Chen’s loan, intimating that Jack ulty and Chinese administration made it had "backed up a ’crook’ for scholarships & appealing to the most capable Chinese. Chen other favors from the college." Jack told Chen was not the only Chinese to cross over from that his carelessness "handicaps & jeopard- the University of Nanking to Southeastern. izes my work in the University on behalf of The loss of top-flight faculty caused the Uni- Chinese students. You have made it harder versity of Nanking administration to have for them to get scholarships, loans, & c, espe- hard feelings, feelings that were exacerbated cially upon my recommendation when your as competition for funding also developed. case is remembered, as it is."3’Chastened by The sciences were strong at Southeastern, Jack’s rebuke, Chen repaid half the loan 15

immediately. After he returned to Southeastern in 1925, Hu received Jack’s explanation of this matter. While Jack criticized Chen, he did not com- ment on Harvard officials’ lumping of Chi- nese students together. Hu now understood that the university administration saw Chi- nese students at Harvard as a group. It sensi- tized him to the danger of negative Harvard attitudes towards Chinese based on stere- otypes. Hu raised the money to repay the other half of Chen’s loan, "in anxiety of his [Chen’s] error which may cast an ugly shadow upon the character of Chinese students at Harvard...."32 Part of Chen’s problem repaying the Har- vard loan was the disarray in Southeastern’s finances; payment of faculty salaries was often in arrears, sometimes as much as eight months. Despite financial problems, Chen was productive during his years in Nanjing. In 1922, he brought to press his manual, Chi- nese Economic Trees, a project he had started at the Arnold Arboretum. The same year he wrote up a comparison of Chinese and Japa- nese pines for Kexue [Science], the journal of the Science Society of China. Before long he began a study of the genera and species of the laurel family in China that would be pub- lished in the first volume of Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the Science Society of China. By publishing the Contri- Hu Xiansu (1894-1968), better known as H. H. Hu, a butions in English, Chinese biologists could student of John Jack’s from 1923 to 1925. Photograph address the international scientific commu- from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. nity from the pages of a publication of one of their own institutions. Further, through ex- over again. Chen’s work could not but suffer. change of the Contributions, the biological The University of Nanking mentioned the laboratory could build up its library with tragedy in criticisms of Southeastern botany. publications from institutions throughout During the spring of 1924, Southeastern ar- the world. ranged to receive a set of the National Geo- At the end of 1923, disaster struck. The graphic Society collections made by Qin Ren- science building housing the library and the chang, a forestry student working his way natural history collections at Southeastern through the University of Nanking as a teach- burned down. Southeastern’s herbarium was ing assistant at Southeastern University. lost; thousands of specimens painstakingly University of Nanking botanist Albert Stew- mounted on sheets of paper, labelled, and ard attempted to win the set for his herbarium filed had gone up in smoke. What had seem- by undermining confidence in Southeastern. ingly just started had now to be started all His method was to write Elmer Drew Merrill 16

(1876-1956), the preeminent American ex- the specimens.34 He got nowhere with his pert on Chinese plants. Steward knew that complaints. Merrill had his own relationship Merrill, through his connections in Washing- with Chen and was eager to work on Chen’s ton, could influence where the specimens Hainan materia1.35 Nanking’s bid for the set would go. of National Geographic material failed. Merrill had become a leading authority on Botanical work at Southeastern picked up the flora of China during his years as director in 1925. Qin Renchang began full-time work of the Philippines Bureau of Science. His at Southeastern after he graduated the Uni- influence derived from promoting institu- versity of Nanking, and Hu Xiansu returned tional ties, setting up herbaria-he did this for from Harvard. Hu, like Chen, won Charles Lingnan University and the University of Sargent’s confidence while he was at the Nanking-and identifying Chinese speci- Arnold Arboretum. A fund for botanical ex- mens in prodigious quantities with phe- ploration in China was to be set up with Sar- nomenal speed. He determined approxi- gent and Marion Case as two of the trustees. mately 75,000 Chinese specimens from 1914 Hu would oversee the work in Nanjing, to 1929. In 1924, Merrill became dean of the Southeastern being the chief beneficiary. Hu University of California’s College of Agricul- naively mentioned this to John Reisner, dean ture at Berkeley, a position that increased his of the University of Nanking’s College of influence.33 Forestry and Agriculture. When Steward wrote to Merrill in 1924, Reisner lobbied Merrill for help to make there were more herbarium specimens of Nanking the beneficiary instead. "No one in Chinese plants in Western institutions than China is more sympathetic with the aspira- in institutions in China. Steward explained tions of the Chinese than I am," Reisner that it was "a source of regret as well as of explained as he denounced Hu Xiansu, "a inconvenience to botanists working in China strong pro-China individual" enthusiastic that so many fine collections of Chinese about botanical work. Unfortunately, Hu’s plants have been taken completely out of the "enthusiasm has never been able to lead to country." Steward used a progressive argu- practical organization of their [Southeast- ment for a parochial purpose. It had already ern’s] herbarium work which would result in been decided that the National Geographic a usable file of herbarium material." Of specimens would go to an herbarium in course, Reisner brought up the Southeastern China, Southeastern’s herbarium, but Stew- fire. He admitted that there were also collec- ard whittled away at Southeastern. It was tions at the science society’s biological labo- unsafe; their fire the past winter showed this. ratory, collections under the control of Hu The plants that it had were not properly Xiansu, "but they are in the same condition as arranged. "The men in charge of their work botanical plants in Chinese institutions al- have not shown ability, serious interest, or a ways are, unorganized and of no value to spirit of cooperation along this line." He anybody in their present condition." Reisner singled out Chen. The University of Nanking asked Merrill to recommend cooperation had apparently contributed to the financing with the University of Nanking to Sargent.36 of Chen’s 1922 expedition to Hubei. Steward Hu found out about Reisner’s efforts to get claimed that Chen owed him specimens and Sargent’s support and was outraged because was angry that Chen’s "god-father friend Pro- Reisner "always professes friendship and fessor Jack who was to have identified the cooperation with us.... If this is Christian Hainan collection" received the woody spirit, no wonder our young men now en- plants Chen collected in Hubei. Steward felt deavor to spread a national-wide anti-Chris- that John Jack was the source of Arnold Arbo- tianity propaganda."3’ retum pressure for Southeastern to be given After Hu’s return to China in 1925, Hu and 17

Chen began a long and fruitful collaboration notes. Until 1932, most of the Lingnan collec- on their Icones Plantarum Sinicarum, illus- tions sent to Merrill for identification came trations and descriptions of Chinese plants. from Floyd McClure (1879-1970), a graduate The first of five large-format volumes-the of Ohio State University who came to Ling- drawings were life-sized-came out in 1927. nan in 1919. The material McClure sent was Chen and Hu dedicated it to Charles Sargent often sterile (it had, no fruits or flowers), not "through whose deep interest in Chinese accompanied by adequate notes and labels, Botany the knowledge of our ligneous flora and not ample enough for division; this was has been greatly advanced." That same year important in case Merrill needed to send a Chen took a year’s leave from Southeastern to portion of a specimen to a specialist for deter- research the flora of South China. He had an mination. Merrill criticized McClure se- appointment as professor at National Sun verely for the low quality of the study sets he Yatsen University in Guangzhou, but he was receiving. McClure blamed the illiterate spent most of the winter and spring at the coolies he had been sending into the field for Hong Kong Botanical Garden studying Chi- the poor specimens collected. By contrast, nese plants with Qin Renchang. Instead of Merrill was especially pleased with the speci- returning to Southeastern at the end of his mens coming from Chen’s institute. Chen leave, Chen stayed on at Sun Yatsen.38 Hu attributed this to the fact that his "assistants also left Nanjing; he was appointed head of are college graduates, not coolie collectors, botany at the new Fan Memorial Institute of able to observe as well as collect."39 Biology in Beijing. Although there was competition, relations between Protestant Lingnan University and Institution Building in South China, Chinese Sun Yatsen University were not 1927-1937 nearly so strained as those between Nanking Developments at Sun Yatsen were rapid. The and Southeastern. The tension between bota- China Foundation, the organization which nists of the two schools seemed due to Ling- controlled the moneys from the United nan’s sense of having proprietary rights in States’ remission of China’s Boxer War in- South China. Perhaps Lingnan’s desire to demnities, decided to support Chen’s work. control South China botanical exploration In 1928, the foundation funded a new botany came from president James McClure Henry, institute at Sun Yatsen with Chen as head. son of Benjamin Henry, South China explorer The following year the foundation secured and first Lingnan president. James Henry may Chen’s salary by making him a China Foun- have seen Chen as a newcomer to South dation Science Professor. Chen launched an China. Lingnan was certainly threatened by ambitious program of collecting in South how fast Chen was taking hold of the South China while building up the institute’s li- China work. The chairman of the biology brary and herbarium through exchanges, department and editor of the university’s especially with curator Alfred Rehder at the Lingnan Science journal, William Hoffman, Arnold Arboretum and Elmer D. Merrill at was put off by Chen’s unwillingness to accept the University of California. Merrill’s pri- limitations. Chen was more assertive than mary interest was the flora of South China, the typical Chinese scholar, and Hoffman did and he and Chen established a close working not know how to deal with him. No one at relationship. Merrill respected Chen because Lingnan had been wronged by Chen, but of the high quality of his work, and com- Hoffman was suspicious, explaining to Mer- plaints from Lingnan University did not rill that Chen "has pulled off a number of change his feelings. ’crooked’ deals in his relationship with scien- Merrill took the measure of a botanist by tists and scientific institutions of which I am the quality of his specimens and his field aware. "’° 18

According to Chen, the friction was due to Fifth International Botanical Congress met his unwillingness to fall in with Lingnan’s in Cambridge, England. For the first time in plans. After Lingnan obtained a substantial the history of the meeting, there was a sym- grant from the China Foundation, an infor- posium on the flora of China, and for the first mal meeting among Chen, Hoffman, and a time there was attendance by Chinese bota- few of the other Lingnan people was called to nists. The symposium brought together ex- discuss plans for cooperation. Hoffman made perts on China’s flora from Leningrad, Copen- three proposals: that the two institutions hagen, Berlin, Vienna, Florence, Paris, Lon- exchange specimens, divide the territory, and don, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, New York, Nan- not visit the same locations in the same jing, and Guangzhou. Chen participated as season. Exchange of specimens, Chen replied, the representative of the Botanical Institute need not be contingent on Lingnan’s getting a of Sun Yatsen University, the Science Society grant. Chen saw the other proposals as re- of China and the national government of strictions under the mask of cooperation. He China. In his address to the symposium, he explained his position in no uncertain terms: reviewed the development of botany in "I came to Kwangtung [Guangdong] to study China, dividing its history into three phases, the flora of Kwangtung, and ... I intend to go "the period of ancient Chinese research, the any place, any time and as many times as period of early European research, and the " necessary, so long as I find means to do so ... period of modern Chinese research." to accomplish two principal objects-to pub- In the first period, from the first to the lish a good flora of the province, and to gather nineteenth centuries, botanical information and sow seeds of as many rare plants as pos- was compiled and published in herbals, ency- sible in order to save them from certain ex- clopedias, and dictionaries; in the second pe- tinction."4’ riod, beginning in the eighteenth century, During 1930 Chen reached out to the for- European botanical explorers collected plants eign scientific community in China and in China, enriching the herbaria of leading around the world. Chen usually did not pub- botanical institutions in the West-this was lish in the journals of foreign institutions in the material Chen was studying while in China, but in 1930 he published "Forestry Europe; in the third period, Chinese them- and the Conservation of Resources" in the selves were "undertaking a re-examination of Lingnan Science journal. Chen was trying to the vegetation of their own country on a increase awareness among foreigners of one scientific basis." This last period began in of China’s critical problems. Also in 1930, 1916 when Qian Songshu published his spe- Chen’s botany institute started publishing cies of Ranunculus in Rhodora. Chen sum- an English-language journal. Formerly, Sun marized the publications of the other leading Yatsen University’s publications had been in Chinese botanists, Zhong Xinxuan, Hu Xi- Chinese and dealt with problems of only local ansu, Qin Renchang and himself. Of the five, interest; the new journal was intended for only Qin had not been trained at Harvard’s "the scientific world as a whole." Chen and Arnold Arboretum. Chen surveyed the lead- his colleagues accepted Merrill’s advice to ing botanical institutions in North, Central, have a one-word title for ease of citation; they and South China and described the growth of called the journal Sunyatsenia because the libraries and herbaria. Many in his audience University was founded by Dr. Sun, "the already were familiar with the story. Through ’father’ of our republic...."42 exchanges, they had obtained volumes of Chen attended two international scientific Chinese botanists’ publications for their li- congresses in 1930. At the Fourth Pan-Pacific braries and specimens with Chinese bota- Science Congress in Java, Chen gave a paper nists’ labels for their herbaria. Chen appealed on the flora of Guangdong. In August, the for their continued cooperation in the build- 19

ing of reference collections in China.43 edge of the flora of Hainan and Kwangtung Before and after the conference there was [Guangdong]." time for study of the collections at Kew Gar- The 1930s were productive years for Chen, dens in London and discussions with Merrill. and he became accepted as the leading figure At the beginning of 1930, Merrill left the in South China botany by both Chinese and University of California to become director of foreigners. He was held in affectionate regard, the New York Botanical Garden. Merrill had and his personal life was a major item of money for exploration, and Chen proposed a gossip among botanical workers at Sun Yat- botanical expedition to Hainan under the sen, Lingnan, and Kwangsi. In the mid-1930s joint auspices of the New York Botanical Chen started collaborating with his niece, Garden and his own institute.44 The idea de- Chen Shuzhen, known as Faith, on Chinese veloped into a series of expeditions carried trees of the storax family. Chen had already out over the next few years. The European trip married the daughter of a wealthy Hong Kong was a punctuation point in Chen’s career. He family, but the marriage had not produced was now working as an equal with his West- children. When Chen and Faith were seen ern colleagues; he was part of the interna- constantly working together, rumors of a tional botanical community. romance became rife among South China During the 1930s, work on the flora of botanical workers. After Chen’s wife died, he South China steadily expanded under Chen’s remarried, but not Faith. He married his leadership. In 1934, the China Foundation housemaid, who bore him two children, a boy upgraded Chen’s science professorship to a and a girl.46 research professorship so that Chen could co- ordinate botanical work in Guangdong and The War Years, 1937-1945 Guangxi provinces. The foundation and the Botany in China and Chen’s career developed Guangxi provincial government provided swiftly until the outbreak of war with Japan funds to organize the Research Institute of in 1937. The country was shocked when Japa- Botany at the University of Kwangsi (Guang- nese troops invaded the capital in Nanjing, xi), with Chen as head. The institute used the looting and raping with fierce savagery. Chen building of the former British consulate in worked at the botanical institute in Guang- Wuzhou. The situation at the University of zhou until the city fell to the Japanese in Guangxi was congenial; president Ma Junwu October 1938. Chen later recounted to Mer- was specially interested in biology-he had rill his escape to Hong Kong during the Japa- translated Darwin’s Origin of Species into nese bombing: Chinese-and was sympathetic to Chen’s re- search.°s Bombs fell on the compounds of our Insti- In 1935, Chen’s work and the work of bota- tute.... You suggested removal to Hong Kong in readiness for instant of nists shipment throughout China benefited from the herbarium and library to New York, for Merrill’s change of position from Director of the duration, at your expense.... We the New York Botanical Garden to Adminis- moved somehow. Finally Canton [Guang- was evacuated but I trator of Botanical Collections at Harvard zhou] completely slipped alone into Shameen [Shamian].... University. Now the leading Western expert The Japanese used Germans to search resi- on China’s flora was united with the exten- dences of Shameen for Chinese refugees. sive collections of Chinese at the They came to my hiding place at midnight plants but I tricked the Nazis. When mission Arnold Arboretum and the Herbarium. my Gray failed I made my way by foot to Hong Kongg That same year Chen and Hu Xiansu pub- disguised as a coolie. lished volume four of their Icones Plantarum Sinicarum, dedicated to Merrill "in recogni- Chen and his coworkers resumed operations tion of his signal contribution to the knowl- in the Kowloon section of the British colony 20

as best they could. The China Foundation In 1946, Merrill arranged funding for Chen continued its support, but those funds were to come to the United States to work at not sufficient. Chen’s "sister-in-law mort- Harvard for a year or two. With the criminal gaged her house to keep the Institute run- charges dropped it now seemed possible, but ning." When Chen cabled Merrill for money, the Sun Yatsen University chancellor re- Merrill sent small amounts out of his own quested Chen stay in China, and Chen had income.4’ "no alternative but to comply." Chen worked The Japanese captured Hong Kong on to get his two institutes moving again, but Christmas day, 1941. Japanese soldiers with over the next year he became depressed. No fixed bayonets took possession of the one at the Guangzhou institute was institute’s Kowloon premises. Chen again adequately paid. There was dissatisfaction, successfully obtained sanctuary for the hopelessness, and a loss of will. Chen felt institute’s botanical work. He asked the di- time slipping by. Since the Japanese capitula- rector of education of the Japanese puppet tion, the institute had made no progress. government in Guangdong for permission to Chen told Merrill: "I am only a few months move the botanical collections of Sun Yatsen this side of sixty with nothing much to look University back to Guangzhou. Chen got forward to aside from a lonely old age. I am permission and an appointment as professor utterly tired in body and spirit but goad in the puppet government’s Kwangtung Uni- myself on with feigned optimism." Chen felt versity, which had taken over the Lingnan the ambition for a final spurt of accomplish- University campus. The institute moved ment. He asked the seemingly indefatigable back. Merrill: "Out of your rich life and experience After the Japanese defeat, the Chinese what would you think I must do to get out of Nationalist government charged Chen with this slough of despond?"’9 "cultural collaboration" with the enemy Chen did not know that Merrill had spared because of his willingness to deal with the his Chinese colleagues news of his own de- puppet government. The popular fervor sur- spondency. Merrill resigned the directorship rounding the war-criminal trials produced of the Arnold Arboretum in June 1946 over a hysterical accusations. Chen had gone controversy about the use of the arboretum’s against the Chinese tradition of absolutely endowment, an endowment that he was opposing the enemy; now his own enemies largely responsible for building up. Merrill had an opportunity to attack him. An investi- stressed to contributors that their gifts would gating committee of the Ministry of Educa- only be used for arboretum purposes and used tion and representatives of a group of profes- the funds to augment the living collections of sors and staff of Sun Yatsen University the arboretum as rapidly as possible. He was claimed that Chen worked for the Japanese criticized for obtaining more material than puppet government as director of the "Bureau the arboretum could digest. The Harvard of International Propaganda." Chen got a law- administration promoted a plan that would yer, the same Sun Yatsen University law use the arboretum’s endowment for botany professor appointed to defend the Com- work in general at Harvard. Merrill fought mander of Japanese forces in South China, the plan, maintaining that he was following and solicited letters from Merrill and other the indenture of 1872 to establish and support colleagues attesting to the value of his actions an arboretum "which shall contain as far as is to save the herbarium. Since there was no practicable, all trees and shrubs ’whether Bureau of International Propaganda, and indigenous or exotic, which can be raised in since Chen’s actions regarding the institute’s the open air...."’ The new plan would wreck collections seemed justified, the charges the great heritage of Charles Sargent. Merrill were lost the battle with and he lost his quashed.°~ . Harvard, 21

Professor Chen Huanyong, founder and first director of the South China Botanical Institute in Canton. Photograph courtesy of Professor F. H. Chen, director of the South China Botanical Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science (Academia Sinica) through Dr. Shiu-ying Hu. health as well.~° and suspension of work at the Fan Memorial In June of 1949, Chen wrote to Merrill of his Institute of Biology while it was being trans- desperate attempts to save the institute in ferred to the academy’s control. Hu hoped the Guangxi as the South China situation be- institute could return to normal operations came tense.5’ It was the last time Merrill when the new arrangements were finalized. heard from Chen. The revolution under the Hu had not heard from Chen, but explained leadership of the that "Canton [Guangzhou] has been ’liber- was successful. Science in China would be ated,"’ and he trusted that Chen was "doing completely reorganized. well, as the present regime professes a high esteem to natural science and to scientists."Sz Science in the People’s Republic, It was not until 1954, that Chen’s institute at 1949-1971 Sun Yatsen University was also placed under On 1 November 1949, the new Chinese Acad- the auspices of the Academy of Sciences and emy of Sciences was established and rapidly given a new name, South China Institute of began absorbing scientific research institutes Botany.~ in the Beijing area. In late November, Hu In September 1954, 1,200 delegates as- Xiansu wrote to Merrill about the troubles sembled in Beijing for the First National 22

People’s Congress, the meeting which ap- boriculture and Lysenko’s genetics entered proved the constitution of the People’s Re- Chinese biology. A heated controversy devel- public of China. Chen and fellow botanists oped between the supporters of Morganist Qian Songshu and Qin Renchang were among (American) genetics and Lysenkoist (Soviet) the scientists who participated. On the after- genetics. Although Hu Xiansu’s work did not noon of the fifteenth in Huai Ren Hall, Chair- bear on genetics, he involved himself in the man opened the conference, his debate as a matter of principle.~ Chen steered remarks punctuated by the delegates thun- clear of this trouble. derous applause. Along with general exhor- Through the 1950s and early 1960s, Chen tations, Chairman Mao urged the people to kept publishing. Before liberation his work "do their best to learn from the advanced ex- was mostly written in English; after libera- perience of the Soviet Union...."54 During the tion he wrote only in Chinese. This did not sessions, many delegates made speeches. The represent a total withdrawal from interna- participating scientists, almost all trained in tional botany; descriptions of new species and the West, must have squirmed in their seats higher groups included the Latin descriptions when chemist , vice chairman of required by international rules. Other col- the All-China Federation of Scientific Socie- leagues also moved to the new pattern of ties and renowned for his research on soda language use. Hu Xiansu did not make the manufacture, gave his speech. Hou was a shift as rapidly as Chen, but by 1958 he also no graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of longer wrote in anything but Chinese. This Technology, Pratt Institute, and Columbia change was no doubt healthy for the develop- University. He prefaced his remarks by con- ment of Chinese botany, but the abrupt tran- fessing. "I am a person who has most deeply sition served to further isolate Chinese bota- received American imperialist education, a nists and their colleagues in the West from person who received the severe poison of each other. English and American capitalist education." China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revo- During the anti-Japanese war, Hou supported lution began in 1966. In most areas, scientific Western science; after liberation he turned to work came to a halt. During the anti-Japanese Soviet science. Other scientists gave war, there had been research activity. Now speeches: geologist , engineer Mao there was no research, no writing. Many sci- Yisheng, mathematician , and entists suffered deprivations and indignities. Minister of Forestry Liang Xi.ss At one ses- The few biologists permitted to read books sion, biologists including Chen, Qian Song- considered themselves fortunate in the ex- shu and Qin Renchang proposed that each treme. China, at war with herself, suppressed province be required to designate a forest her scientists. Because Chen had exchanged preserve to protect wild vegetation used in botanical specimens and literature with for- scientific research. The State Council ap- eign research institutions, he was accused of proved their proposal.ss having illicit relations with foreign countries The same year as the National People’s (litong waiguo) and of being a cultural traitor Congress, Chen published a paper on the (wenhua hanjian). Severe persecution broke characteristics of Soviet science as under- him in body and mind. By the end of 1970 he stood through its research on the bark of was eighty-one years old and severely ill. He Eucommia (duzhong) .,17 The following year, would not live to see the end of the cultural 1955, Chen was made a member of the Chi- revolution, nor would he live to see relations nese Academy of Sciences. As China increas- with the United States reestablished. ingly turned towards the Soviet Union, ideas The miseries of the from Pavlov’s psychology and physiology, reached their high point in 1971. Scientists Lepeshinskaia’s cell biology, Michurin’s ar- under attack had the added anguish of seeing 23

their families suffer as well. Cultural Revolu- 5. This can be seen by following the annual reports for tion followed Chen into the arboretum’s herbarium in the Journal of the politics Guang- Arnold Arboretum. zhou’s Sand River Hospital, where he lay terminally ill. At the beginning of January 6. A. J. Philpott, "Comes From China to Boston to Study Chinese Trees," Boston 25 November a certain came to extend his Globe, 1917, 1971, professor page 25. regards. It was reported that Chen said, "I 7. Li "Mianhuai nuli firmly trust the party; I firmly trust the Shugang, jiaohui, pandeng" [Recall the teaching, work hard to climb], Guangdongshengg I trust party’s policies; firmly Chairman zhiwuxuehui huikan, Volume 2 (1985~, page 126; Mao’s line." He died a few weeks later.59 Marion Roby Case, The Second Summer at Hillcrest Farm (Weston, Massachusetts, 1911), page 6. Endnotes 8. Information on Chen’s early years is sparse and unre- 1. "Chen is the in Huanyong" equivalent hanyu , liable. I have drawn mostly on a few lines in Chen the official romanization of the of People’s Republic Fenghuai et al., "Jinian woguo jiechu zhiwuxuejia China, for Woon-Young Chun, Woon-Yung Chun, or Chen Huanyong xiansheng" [Commemorating W. Y. Chun, the various spellings Chen used for his China’s outstanding botanist, Chen Huanyong"], name on publications or correspondence not in the Guangdongsheng zhiwuxuehui huikan, Number 2 Chinese language. (1985), page 112. A. J. Philpott, "Comes From China A bibliography of Chen’s scientific works can be to Boston to Study Chinese Trees," mentions father compiled from Elmer Drew Merrill and Egbert H. Chen’s job at the Hanbury School. For information A Eastern Asiatic Walker, Bibliography of Botany on the Hanbury School, see N. Gist Gee, editor, The (Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts: Amold Arboretum, Educational Directory for China (no place: Educa- and H. A 1938), pages 79, 198, 318; Egbert Walker, tional Association of China, 1905), Appendix C, page Bibliography of Eastern Asiatic Botany Supplementt 34; Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 1, (Washington, D. C.: American Institute of Biologi- fanyishi, Jindai laihua waiguo renming cidian [Dic- cal and and Sciences, 1960), pages 42, 48, 49, 226; tionary of foreigners who came to China in the Zhongguo zhiwuxue hui [Chinese Botanical Soci- modem period] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue zhiwuxue wenxian mulu ety], editor, Zhongguo chubanshe, 1981), page 189. [bibliography of Chinese botany] (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1985), Volume 1, pages 68 and 69, 373; 9. Sheila Geary, "The History of the Case Estates" Volume 2, page 829. (unpublished manuscript, 1981), pages 3 and 4. 2. Charles Sprague Sargent, "The First Fifty Years of the 10. John G. Jack, "The Arnold Arboretum: Some Per- Amold Arboretum," Journal of the Arnold Arbore- sonal Notes," Chronica Botanica, Volume 12, tum, Volume 3, Number 3 (January 1922), pages 127 Numbers 4 to 6 (1948 and 1949), page 187. and 129. 11. Woon Young Chun [Chen Huanyong], "Forestry in 3. For a historical summary of the literature on the China," Chinese Students’ Monthly, Volume 6, similarity between the floras of eastern Asia and Number 3 (10 January 1911), pages 274 to 276. eastern North America, see Li Floristic Re- Hui-lin, 12. New York State at Between Eastern Asia and Eastern North College of Forestry Syracuse lationships News 19 America (Philadelphia: American Philosophical University, Letter, August 1914, page [5]. Society, 1971), reprinted from Transactions of the 13. Woon Yung Chun, "The Ithaca Conference," Chi- American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol- nese Students’ Monthly, Volume 9, Number 1 (10 ume 42 372 and D. E. (1952), pages and 373, Boufford November 1913), pages 59 to 63. For the consortium, and S. A. Spongberg, "Eastem Asia-Eastem North see Roberta Allbert Dayer, Bankers and Diplomats American Phytogeographical Relationships-A His- in China 1917-1925 (London: Frank Cass and Com- from to tory the Time of Linnaeus the Twentieth pany, 1981), page 25. Century, Anna7s of the Missouri Botanical Garden, " Volume 70, Number 3 (1983), pages 423 to 439. For 14. Woon Yung Chun, "East Is East and West Is West," Gray’s work in this area, see A. Hunter Dupree, Asa Chinese Students’ Monthly, Volume 9, Number 6 Gray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), /10 April 1914), pages 491 to 493. Chapter 13. A summary of Bretschneider’s shipment 15. Woon Yung "Bitter Chinese Stu- of seeds to Sargent is contained in Bretschneider to Chun, Strength," Arnold Arboretum dents’ Monthly, Volume 9, Number 8 ( 10 June 1914), Sargent 9/25/1893, Archives, 602 and 603. Harvard University. pages 16. "Recent in 4. See B. Charles and Woon-young Chun, developments sys- Stephanne Sutton, Sprague Sargent tematic in in: the Arnold Arboretum Harvard Univer- botany China," Fifth International (Cambridge: Botanical Congress, sity Press, 1970), Chapters 8 to 10. Report of Proceedings (Cam- bridge : Cambridge University Press, 1931), page 524; 24

Chien Sung-shu [Qian Songshu], "Two Asiatic Allies pages 201 to 203 (1982). of Ranunculus pensylvanicus," Rhodora, Volume 27. On Guo’s recruitment see 18, Number 213 (September 1916), pages 189 and activity, Barry Keenan, 190. The Dewey Experiment in China: Educational Re- form and Political Power in the Early Republic 17. For information on Qian Songshu and Zhong (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977), pages Xinxuan’s careers at Harvard, see their respective 56 and 57. For a biography of Guo, see Biographical registration cards, UA V 161.272.5 and UA V 252.- Dictionary of Republican China, Volume 2, pages 276, Harvard University Archives. For a biography of 276 and 277 (1968). Qian, see Zou Anshou, "Qian Songshu," in: Tan Jia- zhen, editor, Zhongguo xiandai shengwuxuejia 28. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 1/25/47, Ar- zhuan [Biographies of modem Chinese biologists] nold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard Hunan kexue University. For a short biography of Hu Xiansu, see (Changsha: jishu chubanshe, 1986), Yu "Hu in: Tan pages 12 to 20. Dejun, Xiansu," Jiazhen, editor, Zhongguo xiandai shengwwruejia zhuan, pages 70 18. For Chen’s addresses, see his Bussey Institution to 85. Registration and Record Card, UA V 252.276, Har- vard University Archives. 29. Hu Xiansu to C. S. Sargent 12/17/20, Arnold Arbore- tum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard University. 19. A. J. Philpott, "Comes From China to Boston to 30. For information on Hu’s see his Study Chinese Trees," page 25. enrollment, Bussey Institution Registration and Record Card UA V 20. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 1/25/47, Ar- 252.276, Harvard University Archives. nold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Gray Herbarium, Harvard University. 31. John Jack to Chen Huanyong 5/30/25, Arnold Arbo- retum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard Univer- 21. For Wheeler’s action, see Bursar, Harvard University sity. to John G. Jack 5/23/25, Arnold Arboretum Chinese Harvard Univer- 32. Hu Xiansu to John Jack 10/2/25, Arnold Arboretum Correspondence, Gray Herbarium, Chinese Harvard sity. For Wheeler’s publications on the ants of China, Correspondence, University. see the years 1921, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, and 33. Elmer Drew Merrill, "The Local Resident’s Opportu- 1933 in the bibliography in: Mary Alice Evans and nity for Productive Work in the Biological Sciences,"" Howard William Morton Ensign Evans, Wheeler, Lingnan Science Journal, Volume 7(1929), page 293. Biologist (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, See R. Schultes, "Elmer Drew Merrill-An Appre- 1970). ciation," Taxon, Volume 6, Number 4 (May 1957), 89 to 101 for brief overview of Merrill’s career. 22. John Jack to B. L. Robinson, 7/1/19, Gray Herbarium pages Harvard Library, University. 34. Albert N. Steward to Elmer D. Merrill, 6/21/24, Herbarium, of 23. Benjamin C. Henry, Ling-Nam or Interior Views of University California, Berkeley. Southern in the Hith- China, Including Exploiations 35. Elmer D. Merrill to Chen Huanyong, 1/15/24, Her- erto Untraversed Island of Hainan (London: S. W. barium, University of Califomia, Berkeley. Partridge and Company, 1886), page 383. 36. John H. Reisner to Elmer D. Merrill, 11/2/25, Her- 24. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 1/25/47, Ar- barium, University of Califomia, Berkeley. Reisner nold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Gray also lobbied Comell Professor Harry H. Love; see Harvard Herbarium, University. Reisner and T. S. Kuo to Love, 10/20/25, Herbarium, 25. Two Chinese Muslims quit the University of Nan- University of California, Berkeley. rather than submit to the king religion requirements; 37. Hu Xiansu to John Jack 9/30/26, Arnold Arboretum see Jessie Gregory Lutz, China and the Christian Chinese Correspondence, Harvard University. Colleges, 1850-1950 (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1971, page 92). Chen Fenghuai et al., "Jinian 38. Qin Renchang to Elmer D. Merrill, 6/29/27, 11/2/27, woguo jiechu zhiwuxuejia Chen Huanyong xiansh- Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley. eng," page 114. 39. Elmer D. Merrill to Floyd A. McClure, 1/14/29; 26. Interview with Chen Fenghuai, South China Insti- McClure to Merrill, 1/25/29; Chen Huanyong to tute of Botany, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 4/5/86. Merrill, 1/22/29, Herbarium, University of Califor- Professor Chen Fenghuai was Chen Huanyong’s nia, Berkeley. student at the University of Nanking. After Chen 40. William E. Hoffman to Elmer D. switched to Southeastern Merrill, 3/14/29, Huanyong University, of Chen Fenghuai followed him there. For a short biog- Herbarium, University California, Berkeley. Chen see ci- raphy of Fenghuai, Zhongguo kexuejia 41. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 7/22/29, Her- than [Dictionary of Chinese scientists], Volume 1, barium, University of Califomia, Berkeley. 25

42. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 11/22/29, 53. Zhongguo kexueyuan bangongting, editor, Zhong- Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley; P. F. guo kexueyuan: jieshao [The Chinese Academy of Shen, "Forward," Sunyatsenia, Volume 1, Number 1 Sciences: an introduction] (Beijing: Kexue Chuban- (June 1930), no page number. Merrill had also influ- she, 1986), page 239. enced Academia Sinica’s Metropolitan Museum of 54. For a of the see Natural History to adopt a one-word title for its description delegates attending, China Mainland Press Number 884 and contributions, Sinensia; see Chien Tien-ho [Qian Survey of (8 Tianhe], "Preface," Sinensia, Volume 1, Number 1 9 September 1954), pages 16 and 17; a translation of Chairman Mao’s is in: China Main- (August 1929), no page number. speech Survey of land Press, Number 889 (16 September 1954), pages 43. Chun Woon-yung, "Recent developments in system- 1 and 2. atic botany in China," in: Fifth International Botanical Congress, Report of Proceedings (Cam- 55. "Hou Debang daibiao de fayan" [Delegate Hou bridge : Cambridge University Press, 1931 pages 524 Debang’s speech], Renmin ribao [People’s Daily], 27 4. For summaries of the re- to 528. For a brief description of the Fifth Intema- September 1984, page marks of Hua and see Hsinhua News tional Botanical Congress, see A.B. Rendle, "A short Li, Mao, Liang, history of the International Botanical Congresses," Agency, Daily News Release, Number 1746 (25 and 258. For Chronica Botanica, Volume 1 /1935[, pages 39 and September 1954), pages 246, 247, 257, 40. biographies of Hou Debang and Hua Luogeng, see Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Vol- 44. Elmer D. Merrill to Chen Huanyong, 12/24/30; ume 2 (1968), pages 84 to 86,185 to 187; for Li Siguang Chen to Merrill, 1/15/31, Herbarium, University of and Liang Xi, see Donald W. Klein and Anne B. Clark, Califomia, Berkeley. Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism 1921-1965, Volume 1 (Cambridge: Harvard Univer- 45. For a brief of the see W. Y. description Institute, sity Press, 1971), pages 522 to 524, 543 and 544. Chyne, Handbook of Cultural Institutions in China (Taipei: Ch’eng-wen Publishing Co., 1967), page 227. 56. "Chen Huanyong," Zhongguo ke~cuejia cidian, Volume 2 (1983), page 205. 46. Interview with Hu Shiu-ying [Hu Xiuying], Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, 8 March 57. Chen Huanyong, "Cong duzhong de yanjiu lai renshi 1988. Dr. Hu, a botany student at Lingnan University Sulian kexue de tedian" [Study of the bark of Eu- during the 1930s, reports these "facts" of Chen’s commia to understand characteristics of Soviet personal life as common knowledge among South science"], Kexue Tongbao, 1954, Number 8, page 22. China botanists. 58. For Hu Xiansu’s position, see the translation of 47. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill 1/25/47, Arnold some of his remarks at the 1956 genetics symposium Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard Uni- at Qindao in: Laurence Schneider, editor, Lysen- versity. koism in China: Proceedings of the 1956 Qingdao Genetics Symposium (Armonk, New York: M. E. 48. Chen to Elmer D. Merrill Huanyong 1/15/47, 3/5/ 21 to for a full Arnold Arboretum Chinese Sharpe, Inc., 1986), pages 24; transcript 47, Correspondence, of the see Li Peishan et Bai Harvard symposium, al., jia zhengg University. ming fazhan kexue de bi you zhi lu: 1956 nian 8 yue zuotanhui a hundred 49. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 9/29/48, Qingdao yichuanxue jishi [Let Arnold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Har- schools contend-the only way to develop science: a vard University. record of the August 1956 Qingdao Genetics Confer- ence] (Beijing: Shangwu ymshuguan, 1985). 50. Elmer D. Merrill, "Memorandum to Dr. P. C. Chen et zhiwu- Mangelsdorf," 5/20/46; Augusta S. Merrill to Rich- 59. Fenghuai al., "Jinian woguo jiechu ard A. Howard, 10/29/46, Archives, New York Bo- xuejia Chen Huanyong xiansheng," page 117. tanical Garden. Merrill mentions his resignation of the Arnold Arboretum directorship on 1 June 1946 in Elmer Drew Merrill to Dean Paul H. Buck, 2/12/47, Arnold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Har- vard University. William J. Haas is a graduate student in the History of Science Program, Harvard University. 51. Chen Huanyong to Elmer D. Merrill, 6/20/49, Ar- nold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard University. 52. Hu Xiansu to Elmer D. Merrill, 24/11/49, Amold Arboretum Chinese Correspondence, Harvard Uni- versity.