Joseph Franz Rock

J. F. Rock wrote his phytogeography as an abstract of his botanical explorations in China in 1952 for the Royal Horticultural Society but because of circumstances beyond his control it remained unpublished. It gives a survey of the vegetation of the areas that Rock visited himself, especially Yunnan and Qinghai and is enhanced by the inclusion of the author’s experiences and views. Joseph Francis Rock (1884-1962) was born in Vienna, and during his residence in Hawaii he earned for himself the reputation as the second father of Hawaiian botany. He lived for more than twenty years, until 1948, in the Chinese province of Yunnan where besides botanical exploration mainly for Harvard University and the U.S.National Museum, research on the rituals and pictographic manuscripts of the Naxi people were his main occupation. The present work is based on the typecscipt in the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh and includes many plates from Rock’s own photographs. Rock’s original captions were added to the plates.