124 
EARLY EUROPEAN RESEARCHES 
voyage to China, and a collection of 4010 Chinese drawings 
representing plants and animals, which then became the 
property of the Museum d’histoire naturelle. Anxious to see 
these documents I addressed myself personally to Mr. Decaisne, 
the eminent French botanist and director of that Museum. As 
they were found not to exist there M. Decaisne was kind 
enough to inquire about them at some other libraries in Paris, 
where he supposed they might have been deposited. But all 
inquiries proved unsuccessful. Koch has probably been mis¬ 
taken, not, I believe, with respect to the real existence of such 
manuscripts and drawings, but evidently as to their fate after 
Jussieu’s death. 
I go on now to illustrate the labours in the way of botanical 
researches of another Jesuit missionary of Peking, who 
followed Incarville’s footsteps. 
FIERRE MARTIAL CXBOT was born in 1727 
in Limoges, in France, He came to China in 1759 (thus two 
years after Incarville’s death.) and died in Peking in 1784, 
He was a prolific author and had a predilection for Botany. 
There are a considerable number of interesting observations 
from his pen, relating to Peking plants and their economic 
uses. All his papers have been printed in the Memoires covcer- 
nant les Chinois etc., this vast repertory of the scientific labours 
of the Jesuit Missionaries at Peking in the second half of the 
18th cent., issued in 16 vol. from 1776 to 1814. Cibot’s articles 
are found in vol. II. (1777), III (1778), IY (1779), Y (1780), 
VIII (1782), XI (1786). We are of course not to seek for 
scientific botanical names in Cibot’s accounts. He confines 
himself to good popular descriptions and adds generally the 
names. The following is the list of the plants spoken of in 
Cibot’s papers, with the modern botanical names and the 
Chinese characters added. 
1. On the Chinese Cabbage called Pe tsai and its culture. 
1. c. IY. 503. 
Brassica chinensis. L. sin : |j| pai ts*ai. 
2. The Lien Jioa treated of in vol. III. 437, and XL 218, is 
Nelumbium speciosum. Willd. sin : jf| lien hua 
3. A good description of the water plant Lien hien or Ki 
teou is found in vol. Ill 451. 
This is Euryale ferox. Salisb. sin: if! ^ lien Hen or it M 
kit'on (fowl’s head) 
4. The Lin Ho or Water Chestnut, III. 449, is 
Trapa bispinosa. Roxbg. sin: §| ling Ho, 
