In the vast circle enclosed within these bound-
aries of desert, mountain, and sea, nearly every
kind of vegetation can be successfully cultivated in
one district or another, whilst a considerable variety



io8 CHINA AND THE CHINESE

of types of the great human family is met with,
including members belonging to the same groups
as the people who have poured into Corea, Japan,
Formosa, the Philippine Islands, Indo-China, Siam,
Kulja, and even a country so far away as Persia.
As is well known, anthropologists are divided
into' two absolutely distinct camps : the Poly-
genists, who claim that differences of species
evidenced by differences in height, in features, and
in complexion, are the result of the springing of the
human race from different progenitors; and the
Monogenists, who believe in one primaeval pair of
parents only, and look upon all differences between
human creatures as caused by accidental conditions
modifying the primitive type. The latter assert
that it was within the boundaries mentioned above,
on the central plateau of the present Celestial
Empire, that the first men appeared, and as they
multiplied, became diversified into yellow, black,
white, and red, remaining in their primitive home
until, like a cup filled too full, they overflowed in
every direction to people other lands.
