BOTANICON SINICUM. 131 
CHAPTER III. 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF CHINESE WORKS AND 
AUTHORS. 
Having given in a previous chapter a sketch of the principal 
Chinese treatises on Materia medica, Botany, Agriculture, etc., 
T now venture to offer a more complete enumeration, not only of 
such Chinese works as relate to that branch of literature, but of 
many other writings on Medicine, History, Geography, Philo- 
sophy, etc., which are frequently quoted in the Pen ts‘ao kang mu 
and other works of the same class. 
Attention has already been drawn in a previous chapter to the 
great difficulty which a student of Chinese botanical writings has 
. to contend with in ascertaining the time when the numerous 
works quoted in these writings were composed. We have to seek 
information about them in numerous Chinese bibliographical 
works not always readily accessible. It is therefore not surprising 
that European sinologues, in translating Chinese botanical ar- 
ticles, generally confine themselves to the expression ‘‘a Chinese 
author says,” without attempting to give the date of the publi- 
cations they quote. Even in the translations made from Chinese 
works on Natural History and Agriculture by the great sinologue 
Stan. Julien (see for instance his ‘Culture des Muriers en 
Chine”) we seldom find any indication of time with respect to 
the quotations he translates. 
I have endeavoured to elucidate this question as far as possible, 
and to ascertain from various sources the time to which the 
authors and works quoted in the Pen ts‘ao hang mu belong. My 
list will also be found to contain many other titles of Chinesé 
works mentioned in the Kuang kin fang pu, the Chi wu ming shé 
tu kao, the T*u shu tsi ch‘eng, etc. It is hoped that it will afford 
Some assistance to those who wish to study Chinese books on 
Natural History, and that it will prepare the reader for the better 
comprehension and appreciation of these writings. — 
Li Shi chen, the author of the Pen ts‘ao aes mu, assumes 
on the part of his readers a most extensive kobniene: a Chinese 
