materia medica, of Emperor Shen-nung and 
the Shan-hai-king. Decandolle assumes (1. 
c. 819) that the Indian Archipelago is the 
native country of the cultivated species of 
Dioscoraea. 
Decandolle conjectures also, (1. c. p. 821) 
that Batatas edulis , the Sweet Potato may be 
of American origin. But this plant was de- 
scribed in Chinese books a long time before 
the discovery of America in the Nan-fang- 
ts‘ao-mu-ch‘uang (3rd or 4th century). The 
Chinese authors state that the 
Kan- 
chu (the first character denotes sweet) is an 
important cultivated plant, the roots of 
which supply the place of corn in Southern 
China. The root is said to be of a reddish 
colour and as large as a goose egg. The 
Suan-liua (a 
flowers resemble the 
species of Convolvulus according to the 
drawing in the Ch. W. XXII). This suits 
perfectly with the Sweet Potato as also with 
the fine drawing of the Sweet Potato in the 
Ch. W. VI. The Pen-ts‘ao describes this 
plant XXYII 36. At Peking it is known as 
E3 P a i~ s h u ) (white Potato). The 
charcter Shu seems to be applied to plants 
with tuberous edible roots. 
Phytolacca decandra , the Virginian Poke, 
and Phytolacca octandra are assumed by the 
botanists as being of American origin (De- 
candolle 1. c. 736). In Europe these plants 
appeared only 200 years ago. But Phyto- 
lacca is mentioned in the materia medica of 
Emperor Shen-nung under the name 
Shang-lu and must therefore be indigenous 
in China. There can be no doubt, that 
Shang-lu is Phytolacca. See the good draw- 
ing in the Ch. W. XXIV. The description 
of Shang-lu in the P. XVII® 8 (poisonous 
plants) suits well with Phytolacca. I am not 
able to state, whether Phytolacca decandra 
or octandra be meant. Both are cultivated 
at Peking (Cf. Bunge, enumer. plant Chin, 
bor.) The Chinese use the thick fleshy 
root as medicine, as do also the aborigines 
in America. 
The favoured garden flower Kii, 
Chrysanthemum Chinense was also known by 
the Chinese from remote times. See the 
Bli-ya and the materia medica of Shen-nung. 
As regards the Tea (Thea sinensis, or 
Camellia Thea) the most renowned among 
Chinese cultivated plants and now well 
known by most peoples of the globe, there 
is no evidence to show, that the tea-shrub is 
other than indigenous to China. Bindley 
(Treasury of Botany) states however, that 
the only country, in which it has been found 
in a wild state, is Upper Assam, and adds, 
that a Japanese tradition, which ascribes its 
introduction into China to an Indian Buddh- 
ist priest, who visited that country in the 
6th century, favours the supposition of its 
Indian origin. But this statement is not cor- 
rect. It may be right as Dr. Williams states 
(Middle Kingdom II p. 127) that the gene- 
ral introduction of tea cultivation, does not 
date prior to the 8th or 9tli century, but I 
must observe, that the Tea-shrub is mention- 
ed in the ancient dictionary Rh-ya under the 
names Kia and K:u-tu (K‘u== 
bitter) and a commentator of this work, who 
wrote in the 4th century A. D. explains, 
that this is a little tree, which resembles the 
mp Chi-lsu ( Gardenia species, the 
leaves of which resemble, indeed, the tea 
leaves). It grows in winter ; (the leaves do 
not fall off). From the leaves can be made 
by boiling a hot beverage. Now (at the 
time of the commentator) the earliest gath- 
ering is called ~PpL 1\ the latest ^ Ming. 
Another name for the plant is XgA Chuan. 
In the province of Ss if -chuan the people call 
the plant ZP£Z ICu-tu— The Japanese 
tradition to which Mr. Lindley refers, can 
be found in Kaempfer’s Japan. The Japa- 
nese legend says, that about A. D. 519, a 
Buddhist priest came to China, and in order 
to dedicate his soul entirely to God, he made 
a vow to pass the day and night in an un- 
interrupted and unbroken meditation. After 
many years of this continual watching he 
was at length so tired, that he fell asleep. 
On awaking the following morning he was 
so sorry, he had broken his vow, that he cut 
off both his eyelids and threw them on the 
ground. Returning to this place on the fol- 
lowing day he observed, that each eyelid 
had become a shrub. This was the Tea- 
shrub, unknown until that time.— The Chi- 
nese seem not to know this legend. I am 
astonished, that the great botanist has based 
such a scientific view on this fable, and I 
would remark, that the Pen-ts‘ao states ex- 
pressly, that in China wild -growing tea can 
be found. The character Ch‘a, now 
used to designate the tea-shrub, arose prob- 
ably out of the ancient character Tu. 
I would speak finally of a tree, the fruit 
of which for a long time has been known in 
Europe as Chinese Star-anise. The native : 
country of the Illicium anisatum, which 
yields the Star-anise, has been the subject of: 
many discussions by savants. Some tens of: 
years ago Mr. cle Vriese, a Dutch savant,: 
asserted, that the native country of the Star-- 
anise was not China, as usually supposed, 1 
but Japan. 
