a dependent bough or leaf

Actually, no. The scientists and scholars Heartland is assembling are not members of the gloom-and-doom chorus.

These particulars concerning the Jo-ch'iang are mostly stated in the main account:...The fact of bordering on Cer-cen and its southern neighbour may imply that the later Vāshshahri, between Charkhlik and Cer-cen, was originally a Jo-ch'iang station. The extension of the Jo-ch'iang along the whole hinterland south of the mountains is displayed in old Chinese maps also and in that accompnaying Professor Herrmann's Die Seidenstrassen.

This is an excellent abbreviature of the whole duty of a Christian.