66 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
botanists down to the time of Linnus. Comp. e. g. Plukenet’s 
Amaltheum botan. 1705. 
The descriptions of plants given by Li Shi chen consist for the 
most part of successive quotations from authors of various times, 
and in this regard again present an analogy to the treatises on 
Materia medica of early Western authors. See for instance Ebn 
Baithar’s (18th century) great work on Medicines and Aliments 
(German translation by Sontheimer, 1840), Finally Li Shi chen 
gives also his own opinion on the subject treated of; and it may be 
said that his view is generally the most reasonable of all. 
The Chinese possess very little talent for observation, or zeal 
for truth, the principal requirements of the naturalist. ‘The 
Chinese style is inaccurate and often ambiguous. In addition to 
this they have an inclination to the marvellous, and their opinions 
and conclusions are frequently puerile. But notwithstanding 
these deficiencies, met also in all the other branches of Chinese 
literature, their works on botany, if critically studied and rightly 
understood and appreciated, will be found to be replete with in- 
terest, and to present much valuable information, especially in 
elucidating the history of cultivated species. These treatises have 
no less claim to be translated into European languages and to be 
commented upon than the works of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, 
and Plinins, 
Let me now consider the difficulties which the student of the 
Pen ts‘ao kang mu must overcome in order to understand clearly 
the information furnished in this and other Chinese botanical 
works. 
The first difficulty that arises is to find out where to look for 
the plant about which information is required. Chinese botanical 
works note from 5000 to 6000 names of plants, the synonyms of 
each plant being for the most part numerous. The Chinese have 
nothing similar to the alphabetical indexes of our comprehensive 
works. I have therefore been obliged to draw up for the con- 
venience of my own studies alphabetical indexes of all Chinese 
names of plants and synonyms, according to the sounds of the — 
Chinese characters, not only for the Pen ts‘ao kang mu, but also | 
for the other more important Chinese treatises on Botany. 
It cannot be said that the style of Chinese writers on botanical 
