ON THE CHINESE PLANTS COLLECTED BY D’INCARVILLE, 11 ‘ 
distinct. In these various ways are indicated the care taken by 
Father d'Incarville in co llecting, and the confidence which can be 
ana in ae information. 
the ae of Peking plants. Although the specimens are, as 
'M. Franchet says, poor according to modern ideas, they do not 
appear to me on the whole worse than some which I have since 
examined in the Linnean herbarium. That they have abundantly 
sufficed for determination in the hands of a Some, ross is 
evident from the fact that, out of the 289 specimens * erated, 
there are only pore to which M. Franchet not Gaeal to 
give Ree na 
e e fate a a early collections of Chinese site ees specimens 
t to Europe, with one exception, can hardly be deemed 
an Englishman in the Hast India Company’s service, who, between 
the years 1698 and 1703, was stationed at the island of Chusan 
and at the more southerly port of Amoy. The next collectors 
were qisoaivie at the north, ~ Mees Os sie ye as chaplain 
residence in Peking. Three other Swedish East India Company's 
employés—Toreen, Eckeberg, and Sparrmann—were in Can 
ton between 1762 and 1766, and contributed to science aoe 
botanical notes or specimens. Later on, pam 1779 and sas 
the Portuguese missionary Lour hes author of the « Flora 
chinensis,’ was also at Canton, where, as Oe. Bretsehneider 
states, he has enumerated the oolleabion of 294 speci 
Of the above the Swedish collectors have Er eased the 
best, because they plone a the inestimable advantage of sen 
their specimens direct to Linneus, who forthwith made them 
available to science oy soliiceken. The Linnean herbarium itself, 
as far as I can judge from a slight examination, appears to tell but 
little as to the origin of specimens, but I have reason to believe 
that among his manuscripts will be found enough indications for a 
; Rlgakiy complete list of the Chinese plants which were in his 
d 
tion will probably be found among cca, S MS. notes in his 
a copy of thes "Bpiesios Plantar 
Father d’Incarville’s plants, as we see, oh ave only now come to 
light, nea ay 150 years after their collection. Of Loureiro’s 
herbarium, such part as the army of the first Napoleon could 
manage to carry away ‘front Portugal is now at the Jardin des 
- Although M. Franchet (l.¢., p. 3) says that oP gsc eb abe collections com- 
prise 149 species from the e Peking ree po cies from Macao, or a tot 
of 293 species, his lisf enumerates only labelled Epecinene eso 273 
species. Probably the oe may hi red only to a printer's 
+ Bretschneider, J. c. opt 
