26 
EARLY EUROPEAN RESEARCHES 
There is another well known ancient work on China, 
OECHEK’S CHINA IZ.Z.USTZL/LTA, published 
in 1667. This has also little claim to originality. The author, 
who had never been in China, draws from Martini (who had 
been his pupil,) Boym, and the writings of other missionaries, 
but he quotes honestly his sources and compiles with criticism, 
displaying a great knowledge of the subject he treats of. 
Athanasius Kirclier\ a German, born in 1601 + 1680, was also a 
Jesuit, at first Professor at Wurzburg'; he subsequently resided 
in Avignon and in Rome. 
After Boym the next Jesuit missionary in China I have to 
notice as a Writer on matters of natural science is CrABEIEL 
EE BHAGALHAES) a Portuguese. He was born in 
1609, arrived in China in 1640, died at Peking in 1677. He is the 
author of a work entitled: NOWEIIE RUXsiLTIOH 
BE ILA CHINEa The original M.S. was in Portuguese. 
It was translated into French and published in 1668. On p. 
173 we find an interesting account of the Chinese, White 
Wax, ye la ( |jt), produced by insects in the provinces of 
Shan tung and Hu kuang, and of the trees on which these 
insects use to live. Compare above Martini 37. 
Some remarks on Chinese plants are found also in LE 
COMTE’S NOUVEAUS MEMOIEES SUE 
L’ETAT BE Z.A CHINE. Paris 1696. 2 vol. 
Louis Le Gomte, a Frenchman, born in 1656, joined the Jesuit 
mission in China in 1687. He died in Bordeaux, in 1729. 
1. We learn from Le Comte (I. 173.) that the first Orange 
tree, which had been introduced by the Portuguese from China, 
then (i.e. at the end of the 17th cent.) still existed in the 
garden of Count St. Laurent in Lisbon. 
It is known, that the sweet Orange, now extensively cultivated in 
Southern Europe, was unknown there before the middle of the 16th cent., 
when it was introduced by Juan de Castro. It is in allusion to its Chinese 
origin, that the orange in Dutch is styled Sinaas appel, and Apfelsine in 
German. 
2. Le Comte saw in the province of Shensi a kind of small 
yellow Melon , which, the Chinese eat, without peeling off the 
skin. He notices also Melons the same in size as those 
cultivated in Europe and large Watermelons with red or white 
pulp (I. 132.) 
An excellent globular Melon of the size of a small fist with a thin skin 
is also seen in Peking and known there under the name of m is t*ien 
Tcua or # JR hiang kua. The peel is yellow, or in another variety green. 
Loureiro, FI. cochin. 726, speaks of Melons of large size in Southern 
China* I have not seen large Melons in Peking. 
