the 'fe ~jp Wu-pei-tsu or Chinese gall- 
nuts furnished by a shrub. Rhus semialata , 
called Yen-f u-tsu by the Chinese (P. XXXII 
20. Ch. W. XXXV.) ' In the same work, there 
is further described the JhSf Ti-huang 
(ground yellow) p. 90, a Chinese medicinal 
plant, used also for dyeing in yellow. Cham- 
pion calls this plant Rhemnesia sinensis. But 
such a name, I think, does not exist in 
botanical nomenclature. The same name 
occurs also in Kondot’s work, Notice stir le 
Vert de Chine 1858. I should say, this 
is a misprint in Kondot’s treatise, which 
Champion introduced into his own. The 
Ti-huang of the Chinese is the Rehmannia 
sinensis ( glutinosa ) of our botanist. — The 
Vernicia montana of Champion is probably 
the Elaeococca verrucosa, of botanists, the 
seeds of which yield the poisonous oil called 
the time of Emperor Shi-huang-ti , 246-209 
B. C., that the Chinese dominions spread to 
the South of the Yang-tse- kiang and the’ 
Chinese made the conquest of the Southern 
provinces Kuang-tung and Kuang-si, where 
Balms, the typical trees of the tropics, begin 
to appear. There is however a Palm in 
China, the geographical distribution of which 
reaches to the North as far as the Yang-tse- 
kiang. This is the Chamaerops Fortuni 
( xcelsa), and this Palm is mentioned in the 
Shan-hai-hing or “Mill and River Classic ” 
(v. s.). It seems therefore to have been 
known by the Chinese in remote times. The 
earliest description of Palms by Chinese 
authors occurs in the Nan-fang- tsao - w u - 
chuang (4th century), namely of the Cocoa- 
nut, the Areea Betel, the Oaryota and others, 
and these descriptions are repeated in all 
botanical works of later time. 
T‘ung-yu. Cf. Blakiston’s. Five 
month’s on the Yang.-tse 1862. M. Cham- 
pion might have avoided these and other 
errors, if he had taken the trouble of consult- 
ing a generally known and highly useful 
work, Dr. S. W. William’s Chinese Commercial 
Guide 1863, or Dr. Hanbury’s materia medica 
and other English works. But-M. Champion 
preferred to take information out of French 
works, written in the last century, as the 
Memoires coucernant les (jhinois, Loureiro’s 
Flora Cochin Chinens'is, &c. 
Chinese Accounts op Palms. 
In order to complete my notes on Chinese 
botanical works and to illustrate my critique 
of them, I will give some specimens of 
Chirfese descriptions of plants chiefly from 
the Pen-tshio, and I shall choose for this 
purpose the Chinese accounts of Palm trees, 
a theme I have already treated briefly in the 
Vol. Ill of Notes and Queries (Les Palmiers 
de la Chine), but which X intend now to 
present in a more complete form. 
I would observe at the outset, that although 
Palms of several kinds are indigenous in 
China and now very popular trees among the 
Chinese, and of great importance, affording 
many articles necessary to Chinese life and 
comfort, Palm trees are not however mention- 
ed in the Chinese Cardinal Classics. Neither 
in the Rli-ya nor in the Shu -king, the Chou- 
li, or in the Shi-king, which celebrates in 
song all the renowned plants of the ancient 
Chinese, can be found any allusion to these 
splendid trees. The Materia medica of Em- 
peror Shen-nung makes no mention of any 
Palm. This is easily understood. The 
Chinese classics date from the dawn of 
Chinese civilization, which developed itself 
in a temperate climate on the fertile soil 
between two of the largest rivers of Asia,' in 
the Chinese Mesopotamia. It was only at 
!• . ;jo$ “f 1 Ye tsu. 
( Cocoa-nut Palm , Cocos-nucifera.) 
(P. XXXI 20. Ch. W. XXXI.) 
Shi-ming (Explanation of names). 
A synonym for the Ye-tsu is qjj 
Yiie -wang -thou (head of the ruler of Yiie). 
According to the Nan-fang-t‘sao A c. (v. s.) 
there is a tradition, that the ruler of 
Lin-yi had a quarrel with the ruler of 
Yiie* The former sent a man to kill the 
ruler of Yiie. lie found him drunk, killed 
him and hung his head on a tree. The head 
became metamorphosed into a Cocoa-nut, 
with two eves on the shell. | This is the 
origin of the name Yue-wang-t‘ou. The 
Cocoa-rut contains a liquid like wine (the 
Cocoa-nut milk), and as the Southern people 
called their rulers by the title Ye denot- 
ing “ master,” they changed also the name of 
the Cocoa-nut into a name of similar sound 
written 
Another Chinese Synonym 
p/K 8u-yii, a name 
for the Cocoa-nut is / p|' 
employed by Ssu-ma-siang-ju (2d century) 
B. C.) in his poem Sang-lin-fu. Other 
authors wrote 'pp J|jJ Sii-ye. 
< Pj'T Tsi-kie. (Description of the 
tree). Ma-chi (an author of the 1 0th century) 
says: The Ye-tsii grows in j^j An-nan 
(Armam). The tree resembles the Tsung- 
* Lin-yi was in ancient times a kingdom in India 
. beyond the Ganges, (v. i.) whilst Yiie or Nan-yiie cor- 
responded with the modern Tonking and Southern 
China. 
j t What is commonly called Cocoa-nut is the hard 
shelled seed of the Cocoa-nut fruit and bears at the 
■ base three unequal depressions. 
