20 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
been in the habit of sending for determination to several of the 
most eminent botanists of our time, whose names will be fre- 
quently met with in this paper, and who have always afforded me 
liberal assistance in elucidating many dubious questions relating 
to interesting Chinese plants. ‘This may sutlice for the present 
to enable the reader to form an opinion as to the reliability of 
the statements put forward in these pages. It may be added 
that, having access to the splendid libraries of the Russian Ee- 
clesiastical Mission and of the Russian Legation in Peking, where 
all Chinese works of importance and many rare European books 
relating to China are to be found, I was enabled to avail myself 
of many sources of information which it would be difficult to 
obtain elsewhere, either in China or in Europe: These favourable 
conditions encouraged me to enter upon the vast, yet almost un- 
worked field of investigation of Chinese Botany from Chinese 
sources. It is the first attempt of the kind, and is published with 
a view to laying a foundation for future inquiries. My notes have 
been written for sinologues as well as for botanists, and I must _ 
beg the latter not to be alarmed at the frequent occurrence of — 
Chinese hieroglyphics in the text. No knowledge whatever of 
Chinese is required to understand the quotations met with in 
these pages. . fete, 
M. Alph. De Candolle was the first to point to the importance 
of Chinese records for elucidating certain dubious botanical 
questions. His admirable work on Geographical Botany—a most 
interesting science first created by that eminent botanist—con- 
cludes in the following terms :— 
“L’ancienneté, en Chine et au Japon, de quelques unes des 
“races de plantes cultivées est curieuse, du méme que la sé- — 
“paration du peuple chinois d’avec le peuple de I’Inde, & une 
“époque reculée, séparation qui se prouve par des cultures diffé- 
“rentes et par des noms de plantes usuelles, absolument différents. 
“J'ai senti & plusieurs reprises dans mes recherches combien 
3 I may notice here that an eminent botanist in Europe has distinguished himself 
also as a sinologue. Steph. Lad. Endlicher, born in 1804, died in 1849 as Director of 
the Botanical Garden, Vienna, known by his numerous botanical writings (his ‘Genera 
Plantarum ” is still a standard work), published in 1845 a Chinese Grammar and also 
an Atlas of China. He does not however seem to have directed his attention to Chinese 
