INTO THE FLORA OF CHINA. 
7 
This is it seems the earliest mention made by a European author of 
the celebrated Gin seng Panas Ginseng 0. A. Mey., sin. A# jen 
shen .— Liao tung is an ancient name for the present Shin king or Chinese 
Manchuria. 
12. They have a kind of fragrant flowers, called lajnui, 
which appear in winter after the leaves have fallen. They^re 
of a yellow color and waxlike appearance. 
Chimonanthus fragrans. Lindl. sinice : ^ la mei . It puts forth 
its flowers in December, in Peking, (p. 9.) 
13. They have also a kind of lily (Lys .) which they term 
tiao hoa and keep it in their houses. Tor these plants thrive 
and blossom in the air with their imperishable roots out of the 
ground (p. 6.) 
According to Bridgman’s Chin. Chrestom. (resp. Dr. Williams) p. 452 
(5)- fFj it tiao hua (hanging flower) is the Chinese name for the 
Airplant. The latter is a general name for several species of Ae'rides 
and Vanda, possessing the peculiar property of existing many months 
suspended in air. 
14. Large boats loaded with Lamp-wicks are frequently 
met on the rivers in China. These lamp-wicks are made from 
the pith of a rush, which the Chinese know how to take out. 
This rush is, as Dr. Hance has first proved, (Journ. of Botany 1875 
p. 108) the Juncus effusus. L. 
15. Semedo is the first of the missionaries who notices the 
Tea plant in China and who gives some account of the prepara-* 
tion of the leaves and their use. He states that Gha (^) is 
the name of the leaf of a tree, which resembles the Myrtle etc. 
(P- 27.) 
16. Semedo mentions also (p. 7.) among the, fruits of 
Canton and Fukien the Lichi (Nephelium Hsitelli* see 
above Mendoza) and first speaks of the Lum yen (Hephelium 
ZiUngan. Camb. sin: fH £ij| lung yen.) 
17. Finally Semedo reports (p. 4.) that the Chinese have 
an excellent Varnish, which they call charam, and which is 
yielded by a tree. 
There can be no doubt, that S. means the famed Chinese varnish, gin, 
jUlj t* si, produced by a kind of Rhus, but I am not prepared to give any 
explanation, with respect to charam, which cannot be a Chinese name. 
He repeats the same name on p. 12. Constancio in his Dicionario da 
lingua Portugueza states that this term, still in use in Portugal to 
designate Chinese Varnish, is of Asiatic origin. 
We come next to famous ATlaiLS 
SI33TBWSES* Martinus Martini was born in 1614 at 
Trent (Southern Tyrol, Austria.). He arrived in China 1643, 
returned in 1653 to Europe by way of Batavia and landed at 
Amsterdam, where he made arrangements for publishing his 
