that it is very rich in Sugar (10-13°/o)- In 
the year 1862 Mr. Collins was sent from 
America to China in order to study the mode 
of manufacturing Sugar from this plant by 
the Chinese. But he was much astonished 
at finding, that the Chinese knew nothing 
about the fact, that Sugar can be obtained 
from it. The cultivation of it is limited in 
China. The stem, cut in little pieces is 
eaten in a raw state. The grain is used like 
the grain of Sorghum vulgare. In the Chi- 
nese botanical works the Sorghum Saccba- 
ratum is mentioned under the same name as 
the Sorghum vulgare. Cf. article S Hf I 
Shu-shu P. XXIII. 6, Ch. IF. I. But it is 
there said, that two kinds of this plant are 
cultivated ; the one is glutinous and with 
glutinous Rice i3 used in manufacturing 
alcoholic drinks and also made into cakes. 
This is Sorghum Saceharatum. On account 
of the glutinous properties of the plant, it is 
very difficult to obtain Sugar fromitin a pure 
state. The other kind (Sorghum vulgare, or 
jSj Kno-liang) is not glutinous. It 
makes good gruel and cakes and is good for 
feeding cattle. Cf. Mr. Collin’s article regard- 
ing the Northern Chinese Sugar-cane in the 
North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
Society I860. 
In order to complete my notes on Chinese 
cultivated plants, I ought also to have treat- 
ed of the Poppy (Papaver soinniferum,) and 
now largely cultivated throughout the whole 
Empire. But this theme has already been 
largely treated by several writers in our 
periodicals in China ( Chinese Repository, 
Notes and Queries SfC.J I will therefore 
merely remark that the Opium plant is not 
indigenous in China, but it was brought at 
the beginning of the, 9th century from Ara- 
bia. Therefore the first Chinese name for 
Opium |ffif 5^ H A.ju-jmg (P. XXII l 
24J represents the Arabian name, being 
“Afyun.” Other names, as quoted in the 
Pcn-ts'-ao are Ya-pien or Jr 
A-pien. Both resemble “ Opium,” which 
name, as is known, is derived from a Greek 
word. The popular name of Opium at 
Peking is A Ta-yen (great smoke.) 
In the second half of the 17th century the 
vice of Opium smoking begin to prevail in 
China. Since England made the Chinese ac- 
quainted with the benefit (!) of Opium, they 
devote a great part of their arable land (il- 
legally however and against repeated Im- 
perial Edicts) to the cultivation of it, and 
it seems that the Poppy -plant will soon be 
considered by the miserable Chinese people 
of the present day as important a cultivated 
plant, as the “five kinds of corn” which 
Emperor Slien-nung, the Father of Agricul- 
ture, taught them to sow. 
Since writing on the European works, 
which try to identify Chinese names of 
plants with European scientific names, I have 
obtained a small work, treating of the same 
subject, Essai sur la pharmacie et la matiere 
medicale des Chinois, par Debeaux 1865. I 
would quote some passages from this treatise, 
in order to show how useless and unintelli- 
gible it is to quote Chinese names of plants 
in European spelling, without the Chinese 
characters, it seems to have been unknown 
to M. D., that before him Tatarinov, Han- 
bury and others, wrote about Chinese materia 
medica, for he quotes only as regards the 
Chinese names Loureiro. Loureiro in his 
Flora Cochinehinensis gives a good number 
of indigenous names of plants, but without 
Chinese characters. I think, these names of 
Loureiro, quoted by numerous writers on 
China, as Chinese names of plants, are rather 
Cocliinchinese for it is only in a few cases, 
that I have succeeded in recognizing them 
in Chinese botanical works. M. D. gives 
also a great many new Chinese names. For 
the most part they are either completely un- 
intelligible, or very distorted, or erroneously 
applied. 
Page 20 M. D. states that Stillingia Sebi - 
fera is Ngan-shu in Chinese, and p. 90: Pi- 
rn, a-tse ou fruits a peau huileuse (!) nornmes 
aussi Ho-tien-lse fruits, qui produisent la 
lumiere (!) sont les graines de l’arbre a Suif, 
Stillingia Sebifera. But all Chinese and Eu- 
ropean writers agree, that the Tallow tree 
is called, Wki-kiu-mum Chinese. 
J?|j -jr* Pi-ma-tsu are the seeds of 
Ricinus communis. 
Page 69 and 35;Le Che-tze, fruit du Cra- 
taegus bibass resemble par sa forme et sa 
couleur a une grosse tomate qui serait ap- 
platie sur la partie calycinale. M. D. saw 
evidently the fruits of the ~jp Shi-tsu . , 
Diospyrus Kaki . — Crataegus bibass^ 
Pi-pa in Chinese. 
Page 97; Tsoun, Allium sativum, Tsoun-tse , 
Allium cepa, according to M. !). — But 
Allium sativum ( Garlic ) is Suun, 
- H f ■» 
Allium cepa ( Oignon J Ts'-ung in Chi- 
nese. 
Page 68; Kin-hiang, hois d’Aloes produifc 
par V Aloexylon agallochum, et p. 89 : Tchin- 
, hum, hois te Santa! jaune. — But Aloe-wood is 
