INTO THE FLORA QF CHINA. 
27 
3. A good description of tlie Tea 'plant, its culture, etc., in the 
Province of Fokien is found I. 368. The author explains that 
the Chinese call the plant properly Gha, and that only in the 
dialect of Fokien the name sounds Te. 
4. Le Comte reports that Tobacco is cultivated near Peking 
and in the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Sz’ch'uan. (I. 168.) 
Le Comte seems to be the first European, who notices Tobacco in China. 
It is now a well established fact, that Tobacco was first introduced into 
China through the seaports of Fukien at the end of the 16th or the 
beginning of the 17th cent. 
5. Le Comte speaks (I. 178) of a peculiar Chinese Onion in 
the following terms: J’y ai vu une espece d’oignon qui ne 
vient point de graine comme ceux d’Europe, mais a la fin de la 
saison on voit sortir de petits filamens sur la pointe ou sur la 
tige des feuilles, au milieu desquelles se forme un oignon blanc 
semblable a celui qui germe dans la terre. Ce petit oignon 
pousse avec le temps des feuilles comme celles qui le soutiennent, 
lesquelles a leur tour portent un troisieme oignon sur leur 
pointe, de maniere neanmoins que leur grosseur et leur hauteur 
diminuent a mesure qu’ils s’eloignent de la terre. 
This seems to be the same onion as that described under the name of 
■8 lou tz’ ts'ung (onion growing in stories) in the ^ ^ 
Iciu huang pen ts'ao, published at the end of the 14th cent; a good drawing 
of it is also given there. The description states that at the top of the 
leaves grow from 4 to 5 little onions and on these again, other onions are 
produced constituting thus from 3 to 4 stories. These onion plants do not 
bear seeds.—We have here probably to do with a so-called viviparous 
variety of an Onion. Allium Cepa, A. scorodoprasum and other species 
show sometimes the peculiarity of their flowerstems being surmounted by 
small bulbs, instead of bearing flowers and seeds. These bulbs produce 
new plants. 
6. The blade and yellow Peas, to wdiich Le C. refers (I. 168) 
as used in North China for feeding horses, are : the yellow, 
Soja hispida Moench. (Glycine Soja), the black, a variety 
of it. 
7. Le C. speaking of the Peci (Eleocliaris tlTberOSa* 
Scliult. v. supra Martini 14.) refers to Martini’s statement, 
that when chewed together with a copper coin, the latter is 
easily bruised by the teeth, a story we met also in Chinese 
books. But Le C. refutes this assertion, appealing to his own 
experience. (I. 179.) 
8. The tree is described which yields the Chinese Pepper or 
hoa tsiao. (I. 177.) 
Several species of Zanthoxylon are included under the name of 46 q* 
hua tsiao in China. In Peking this name is applied to Z. Bunge*. Planch. 
