INTO THE FLORA OF CHINA. 185 
learned Father Grosieiywho was Bibliothecaire do Son Altesse 
ftoyale Monsieur, hut had himself never visited China. A 
considerable part of his description of that Empire is devoted 
to Natural history, namely 108 pages to Botany. A new and 
much enlarged edition of the work he published from 1818 to 
1820 in 7 volumes, nearly three of them treating of Natural 
history. Vol. II and III, 658 pages, deal with Botany. It 
supplies a mass of most valuable information with respect to 
Chinese plants, the vast material accumulated by the author 
having been principally derived from the accounts of the 
Jesuit missionaries found in the Lettres edifiantes, Du Halde, 
the Memoires cone, les Chinois etc. But Grosier draws also 
from > many unpublished sources. He endeavours to give a 
list of the Chinese plants which since then had been described 
by professed botanists. But besides Loureiro’s plants from 
Southern China, of which he generally gives a full account, 
his enumeration of Chinese specimens known to botanists is 
far from being complete. 
Although Grosier in reproducing all the observations of the 
missionaries concerning Chinese botany, seldom ventures to 
identify the plants described, his compilation is very useful 
and interesting, and I hope, that with the aid of the identifica¬ 
tions and commentaries I have supplied in the preceding 
pages, almost all the statements of the Jesuits relating to 
Chinese plants will be understood by botanists. 
We learn from Grosier that the Jesuit missionaries have 
introduced many Chinese plants into the Mauritius (Isle de 
France) and Bourbon , where they had also missions. Some of 
these plants were subsequently introduced from these islands 
into' France. Thus Eriobotrya japonica. Lindl. had been 
brought from Canton to the Mauritius and from this place 
found its way to France, where in 1784 one specimen of the 
introduced shrubs blossomed. (Grosier II. 504.)— Litiistonia 
chinensis. Mart, a Chinese palm was for a long time known 
in Europe under the name of Latania burbonica . Lam.— 
NepTielium Litchi was introduced at the end of the last cent, 
from China into the Mauritius and subsequently into Guyana. 
(Grosier II 478.)—In Lamarck’s Enc. Bot. many Chinese 
plants are noticed* as cultivated in the Mauritius. I may quote 
Euphoria long ana (Nephelium longan) Lam. III. 574, Cookia 
punctata. 1. c. VIII. 327, Driandra cordata (Elaeococca vernicia ). 
1 . c. II. 329. Anona uncinata. (Artabotrys odoratissimus ) 1. c. II. 
127, Litsaea chinensis (Tetranther a laurifolia). I. c. III. 574. . 
Dianthus chinensis. L. cultivated in Europe since the begin- 
