38° BOTANICON SINICUM. 
section of the History of the Former Han in the catalogue com- 
piled in the Ist century B. C. Kuo P‘o wrote a commentary on 
it. The edition now current is in 18 books. Compare Journal 
Asiatique, 1839: Notice du Chan hai king par M. Bazin (ainé), 
where some specimens of the work are given. 
THE & Fj Ya AR YR NAN FANG TS‘AO MU CHUANG. 
This is the earliest Chinese treatise dealing with plants and 
bearing a purely botanical character. The title means: Account 
of the Flora of the Southern Regions. ‘The author was #§ @ 
Ki Han, a Minister of State under Hui ti of the Tsin dynasty, 
A. D. 290—807. He had been previously Governor of Canton. 
See his biography, Tsin shu 89. This small treatise is not a rare 
book, it is found in the Han Wei ts‘ung shu (Wylie 1. c. 209) — 
and other collections of reprints. It is also reproduced in the — 
botanical section of the famous T‘u shu tsi ch‘eng, books 3, 5, 15, 
186. We meet in it with interesting accounts of some trees and 
other plants known at that time in South-China, some of them 
brought from distant foreign countries. The plants are treated 
under the four classes of herbs, forest-trees, fruit-trees, and a 
bamboos, including in all 80 species. Among the plants described 
there the following can be ascertained : 
The Banana. 
Jasminum officinale. 
Jasminum Sambac, 
The Nutmeg-tree, 
Canna indiea. 
gar j 
Phyllodes placentaria, Lour. 
Livistonia chinensis, 
Clerodendron squamatum, 
Brassica napus. 
emer reptans, 
ymbidium ensifolium. 
Liquidambar formosana. 
Oli (brought from western 
Lawsonia (Henna). 
Aloexylum Agallochum, 
Cloves, 
Caryota. 
Terminalia Chebula. 
Cexsalpinia Sappan. 
Glyptostrobus heterophyllus. 
Cunninghamia sinensis. 
Vitex Negundo, 
Rattans. 
Areca Catechu. 
Cocoa-nut, 
Myrica sapida. _ 
Nephelium Litchi. 
Nephelium L 
Cieashinal ; Pima. 
Coco de Mer. 
Averrhoa Carambola. 
Various 0; es. 
Phyllanthus lica, 
Aleurites triloba. 
ae 
arious Bamboos of South-China. 
