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BOTANICON SINICUM. 
BOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE 
MATERIA MEDICA OF THE 
ANCIENT CHINESE, 
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INTRODUCTION. 
In connection with a former paper dealing with the 
economic plants known to the Chinese in the classical period, 
and forming the second part of the Botanicon sinicum,' the 
author of those notes now attempts to examine and identify 
the drugs of vegetable origin noticed in the earliest Chinese 
works on Materia Medica,—the Shen nung Pen ts‘ao king and 
the Ming i pie lu. 
The first of these works, the ji §8 7x Bf #2 Shen nung 
Pen ts‘ao king, or Herbal of the Emperor SHex Nung, of | 
which a detailed notice has been given in Part I of the 
Botanicon sinieum [p. 27 seqq.| has, as the word king (classic) 
in the title indicates, always been and is still considered 
by Chinese practitioners a book of the highest authority and 
a model of pharmacological wisdom. Therefore most of the 
drugs mentioned in this ancient pharmacopeeia are still kept 
in store and sold for medical use, and are still known by 
the same names as they appear in that ancient book. 
"See Journ, China Br, Asiat. Soe., Vol, XXV. 
