INTO THE FLORA OF CHINA. 
21 
46. ITrbs. Ching yang (f|f) {^, prov. Hu quang.) Stirps 
quaedatn hie nascitur quae ut Hedera nostra in alturn serpit, 
fiores producit luteos et nonnihil albicantes. Extremitates 
ramorum subtilissimae sunt, velut fila seriea : ajunt ramusculum 
nudae Garni allegatum somnum suavissimum conciliare, ideoque 
Mung hoa dicitur i.e. somnii flos (p. 82.) 
I have not been able to find th ej$£^jj£meng hua noticed in Chinese works. 
In the year 1656 a treatise was published at Vienna under 
the pretentious title of PSORA SIWKNSJS, the author 
of which was Father MICHAEL B0YM, a Pole, born 
in 1612. He left Europe as a Jesuit missionary for China in 
1643, returned to Europe (Lisbon) in 1652, reembarked for 
China in 1656 and died in the province of Kuang si in 1^59. 
The. original work of Boym’s Flora sinensis published in 
Latin is a very rare book. I have seen it in the great Vienna 
library. It is issued in folio, Viennae Austriae, typis Matthaei 
Rictij, 75 pages with 23 engravings. Several prefaces, dedica¬ 
tions and. poetical essays occupy a considerable part of the 
book, which has no claim to research into Chinese botany, as 
the name of the treatise would seem to indicate. Boym gives 
an account of 22 plants, of which more than one half are rather 
plants of the Indian Archipelago. 21 of them are represented 
by tolerably well executed engravings and the Chinese 
characters added to the names. The Flora sinensis is followed 
by an account of some Chinese mammals, birds, reptiles etc with 
2 engravings. The book concludes with an appendix on the 
Inscription of Si an fu. Boym’s Flora sinensis has been 
translated into French by Bayer and appeared also in Thevenot’s 
Relation des Voyages. 1696 sec. partiep. 15—30. The greater 
part of. the engravings have been reproduced in Kircher’s 
China illustrata and in Dapper’s Description of China (see 
further on.) 
I shall give in the following pages a list of the plants 
described by Boym, reproducing occasionally the original text 
or a part of it. 
1. Yay cu $ Jj ~jp. Palma persica et indica seu sinensis, vulgo 
COCO vel Mux !ndorum a (no engraving.) 
2. Pim lam ^ |J$. Fructus iLreca et Bethel folium, 
(no engraving.) 
Drawings representing the Areca palm and Betel pepper are found in 
J. Bontius, Historia natur. et med. Indiae orient. (1629.) p. 90. 91. 
3. Pan yay xu ^ HJ. Arbor Papaya in India dicitur, 
copiose in Sinarum Haynan insula progignitur nec non in 
Iunnam, Quamsy, Quamtum, Focien, australibus provinciis. 
