A Systematic Study on the Discovery Course of Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu Cheng

The discovery of Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu Cheng ( Metasequoia) is a most pride-worthy affair in the field of Chinese modern botany, which bridges the way of Chines botany to go into the world and has been recognized as a most important botanic discovery at home and abroad in the 20th century. The signif-i cance of the discovery goes beyond China's boundaries. After 50 years of cultivation, seedling, and afforestation, Metasequoia glyptostroboides has been planted and grown in 25 provinces, municipaltities, autonomous regions across the Yangtze River in China and in more than 50 countries and regions in the world. It has become an important tree species for wood-based forest, protection forest along the coast or among the cropland, urban greenization and scenery-oriented forest. There are so many different sayings about the course and time of its discovery that the very discovery has become an anecdote in the history of botany deveopment. The paper makes a systematic investigation on the data and evidences of Metasequoia glyptostroboides and summarizes the course of its discovery.