94 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
the Indian Archipelago, much valued in China up to the present 
day. Thus in the Chinese works of that period on Geography 
and Natural History we often meet with Indian names of plants. 
Under the Sung dynasty (10—12th century) regular Sanscrit 
schools with Hindoo priests teaching the language were es- 
tablished in China. A Glossary of Sanscrit proper names 
occurring in the sacred writings, published during that period, 
has come down tous. It bears the title #j #2 7% 3G Vani ming? 
and was written by a priest named 7 32 Ma yiin, in 1143, in 20 
books, one of which is devoted to minerals, animals and plants. 
75 Sanscrit names of plants are given there, rendered by Chinese 
sounds, and explained and identified, as far as possible, with the 
respective Chinese equivalents. About one-half of these names 
of plants may be found in Dr. Hitel’s Handbook of Buddhism 
(1871), with the scientific botanical names added.® 
The term 4§ # fan shu (fan books), frequently met in the 
Pen ts‘ao kang mu, in connection with Sanscrit names of natural 
objects, apparently denotes Sanscrit writings in general. Fan or 
properly Ff # fan mo means Brahma. 
From the 6th century the Chinese maintained frequent in- 
tercourse not only with India, but also with Persia, and during 
38 It may not be out of place to say here a few words on the attempts made by 
European Sanserit scholars and botanists to ascertain the botanical names of plants 
noticed in the ancient Sanscrit Vocabulary, Amara Cosha, and other writings in the 
classical language of the Hindoos, which was a dead language, not spoken even at the 
time of Buddha. The results of these investigations have been brought together in 
J. F. Watson’s Index to the native and scientific Names of Indian and other Eastern 
Plants, 1868, and also in E. Balfour’s Cyclopedia of India, the second edition of which 
appeared 1871—1873, The latter is a comprehensive work in five bulky volumes, 
generally compiled from good sources, but without much critical judgment and without 
thorough acquaintance with the immense and varied matter embraced in the Cyclopedia 
of India. Thus the author does not hesitate to admit the existence of Sanscrit names 
for such, plants as Agave americana, Andcardium occidentale, Anona squamosa and 
reticulata, Helianthus annuus, Mirabilis Jalapa, Nicotiana Tabacum, Zea Mays and 
other plants, which, as is well known, have been introduced into Asia from America, 
since the discovery of the New World. This fact induces me to doubt whether the 
identifications of ancient Sanscrit names of plants, as given in the above-mentioned 
works and Sanscrit dictionaries, are at all reliable. With respect to the author of the 
above-mentioned Amara Cosha, Mr, Balfour states that he was one of the nine poets at 
the court of Vicramaditya, and that he is supposed to have lived about A.D. 948. But 
under Vicramaditya we read that he reigned B.C. 56, Such contradictory statements 
