68 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
two characters. The Chinese authors, in citing dates, refer to 
these reign-names of the Emperors, which correspond to our 
ciphers, to designate the dates. In the same manner the Chinese 
have at all times liked to change the names of their provinces, 
cities, ete. Almost every dynasty, on succeeding to the throne, 
has changed the names of most of the cities and also of the pro- 
Vinces of China. Thus every city has borne different names at 
different periods. But as the number of characters to designate 
geographical names is limited, and as certain characters aré 
particularly in favour for names of departments or districts, it 
happens very often that one geographical name is ay)plied to a great 
number of places, For instance Py 2B Si ping is now-a-days the 
name of a district in the province of Honan. At the time of the 
Han it was the name of a district in the present Anhui; at thé 
time of the Tsin a district in Kansu. During different periods of 
Chinese history the same name was applied to districts in Yiin 
nan, Sz’ ch‘uan, and Hu pei— jx B Yung ch‘ang, now-a-days 
a prefecture in Yiin nan, has borne this name since the 5th century, 
During the Mongol period the same nate was given to a pre- 
fecture in the province of Kansu. There are several other éities in 
China which at different times have borne the name of Yung ch‘ang. 
—The name of a province iL. fi Kiang nan (the two characters 
meaning south of the river) occurs frequently in the pages of the 
Pen ts‘ao. Here it does not mean the country south of the Yellow 
River, so called under the present dynasty (provinées of Anhui 
and Kiang su), but it is to be understood as the Kiang nan pro- 
vince of the T‘ang dynasty, south of the Yang tsz’ kiang, com- 
prising the greatest part of the modern provinces of Fukien and 
Kiang si—In like manner the province of ji }y Ho nan of the 
T‘ang period does not correspond to the province of this namé 
to-day, for it occupied the oreater part of the modern Shan tung. 
Ho nan likewise means south of the river, but heré the Yellow 
River is intended, which then emptied itself into the Gulf of 
Pechili, as it has done for some thirty years past.—The name _ 
HH i Nan hai (Southern Sea) referred in ancient tines to the 
Eastern part of the modern Kuang tung province, but sometimes 
te isa aged ana 200s cee. BR ig crea 
