PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS, 213 
it seems, all over the empire. It is also cultivated in Japan, 
but, as Miquen (quoted by Sipponp) states, it was introduced 
from China. 
A third Chinese Indigo plant is the Jsatis indigofera ot 
Fortune, a cruciferous plant, first observed by that meri- 
torious traveller in the vicinity of Shanghai, where he found 
it cultivated as a tinctorial plant under the name of tien ching. 
It seems to me that F. has reversed the name, and that FF #€ 
tstng tien [v. infra] is meant. According to Mr. Hemsiry 
[Inder Flore sin., 49] Forrune’s plant is only a variety of 
our common European Dyer’s Woad, /satis tinctoria, L. 
Lastly, Forrune describes an acanthaceous plant exten- 
sively cultivated in the Chekiang Province for producing 
indigo, This is the Strobélanthes flaccidifolius, Nees., grown 
also near Canton and in Assam. Mr. Butxock [letter 1881] 
saw it near Pakhoi. This is Fortunr’s Ruellia indigotica. 
P., XVI, 74, lan. An author of the 7th century 
quoted, who states that there are three kinds of /an in China 
from which the BE J lan tien or Indigo is extracted (the 
: Second character is more generally written fe ten) one 
| is the AK BE mu lan or tree lan, the second the Hs BH 
sung lan or cabbage lan, the third the 3% # liao lan or 
Polygonum lan [comp. above 366]. 
The mu lan, said in P. to be cultivated in the southern 
Provinces, is, it seems, Indigofera, The Phon <o, man, 14, 
figures under 7 # or ¥ Indigofera tinctoria. La Sat- 
CHEN describes the mu lan as a leguminous plant with leaves 
resembling those of the Sophora ; pale red flowers, sneceeded 
by pods one inch and more long. : ! 
~The sung lan or cabbage lan is Isatis. It has the same 
Chinese name in Japan. So moku, XI, 45, #4 B or 
9 i XK F (the great blue of the Chinese province Kiangnan) 
As, ang to Francugr, Isatis japonica, Miq. 
