72 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
of referring to it, It has a good claim to be regarded as 
the most complete collection of Chinese records on botanical 
matters extant, and its having been printed with large moveable 
copper types on excellent paper renders it especially useful for - 
reference, A great number of rare or now lost ancient botanical . 
records and treatises on agriculture have been reproduced in it; 
and the whole matter of the Pen ts‘ao kang mu, cleared from 
mistakes, is also found there. The pictorial illustrations accom- 
panying the accounts of the various plants seem to have been 
drawn from all available sources in previous Chinese pictorial 
works on botany. They are much better than those in the Pen 
ts‘ao, but with a few exceptions they have no great value. Some 
of them can be traced to the Kiu huang pen ts‘ao (see above 
No, 35). 
The matter under each plant is invariably arranged in the 
following order—not very intelligible to European minds. 
1. Under the head of & # Hui k‘ao the respective text of the 
principal works on Materia medica, Botany, Agriculture, Horti- 
culture, etc. are reproduced, and generally in extenso, for each 
plant. 
2. The head of Be 3 I wen deals with literary compositions, 
poetical works, etc. in which plants are mentioned. 
3. $8 Gy Siian hi, Elegant extracts, 
4. $2 3f Kishi. Minor historical notices, 
5. RE $%R Tsa lu. Miscellaneous notes. 
6. Ah $% Wai pien. A ppendices, 
Plants in the T‘u shu tsi ch‘eng are treated in 700 He pu 
(divisions). It is to be regretted that the time of publication of 
the quoted works is only given in the case of the literary com- 
Positions and poems, although the reason for this omission is not 
apparent. As regards the quotations under the other heads 
neither the time is noticed, nor are they chronologically arranged 
according to date of publication. 
THE i # % 3 | #% cur wu mune sar rv Kao. 
This, the most recent work of ‘note on Chinese Botany, and 
especially remarkable for its drawings, was published in 1848. 
