References to the algae in the Chinese classics 
W. M. PorTERFIELD, JR. 
(WITH ONE TEXT FIGURE) 
The following notes on the algae referred to in ancient 
Chinese literature are at best sketchy, but are offered neverthe- 
less for what they are worth. The references to the texts and the 
translations thereof are quoted on the authority of Mr. Y. T. 
Chu, Instructor of Biology at St. John’s University, Shanghai, 
China, and Mr. C. F. Wu, formerly of St. John’s, now of Cornell. 
The writer presents this paper with a view to throwing some new 
light on the development of science in general, and to intro- 
ducing to the West, besides, some evidences of Far Eastern 
activity in this line, which parallels, if not predates, that of 
Europe. 
Agriculture in China dates back to Shen Nung,* an emperor 
of the legendary period, 3000 B. C. He was said to be the first 
farmer and taught the people to till their fields. Since this 
mythical age, the people of China have been farmers primarily. 
As the Old Testament was essentially the expression of an 
agricultural and pastoral people and is, in consequence, re- 
plete with similes and references to plants and animals, so in the 
Chinese classics we find the farming life of the people, a life 
of continuous touch with nature, coming to expression in the 
frequently recurring allusions to animals and plants, and in the 
use of terms connected therewith. Long before the Aristotelian 
age of hearsay and philosophical conjecture, the ordinary facts 
of farming and floriculture had entered the realms of Chinese 
literature in the form of terms serving as figurative expressions 
for desirable characters and virtues. In order to have given 
time for everyone to become so familiar with these original 
terms that they crept unconsciously into speech and literature 
as specific classifiers, observation of the form and structure of 
plants must already have proceeded far. This is offered as 
one evidence of age-old familiarity with the facts of nature. 
The second is coincident with the first and deals with the ideo- 
graphs representing these terms and ideas. The discovery and 
use of the facts of nature called into being special ideographs to 
* Appendix, “Peking,” by Juliet Bredon. 
297 
