Introduction
This glossary has been developed to help botanists who are not fluent in Chinese, but have a sincere desire and patient determination to translate descriptions in whole or in part. It may also be useful for Chinese botanists searching for equivalent English terms. Begun in the autumn of 1980, the project was my sanctuary while teaching English at the South China Agricultural College outside of Guangzhou in the People’s Republic of China. Hu Shiu-Ying, Research Botanist at the Arnold Arboretum, invited me to accompany her to China and indulge my fledgling interests in pharmacognosy. I planned to stay only a few weeks and return home. When my travel visas, then required for every city, became difficult for our hosts to obtain, I opted to return to Guangzhou and help Dr. Hu’s school friend, Florence Lee. She needed a native English speaker to lecture in their language program until the American ESL teachers arrived. Their visas were never approved and I finished teaching the six-month course. What I lacked in experience and training, the students provided in enthusiasm and curiosity. The students, in fact, were mature scholars from various disciplines of agriculture who were earnestly preparing for fellowships abroad. This unbelievably dedicated group of about eighty men and women from all parts of China had survived the Cultural Revolution and the political devastation that uprooted their education, careers, personal lives, and national heritage. While the trial proceeded for the deposed leaders known as The Gang of Four, I tried to define the cultural differences between our countries to prepare the students for an academic environment outside of China. In turn, they taught me simplicity, collaboration, and the intrinsic beauty of the Chinese characters.
Writing the manuscript filled the unscheduled hours when I was not preparing for class or working with students. Professor Fang Wen-pei, the Rhododendron specialist from the National Szechuan University in Chengdu, had given me a copy of his publication, The Latin-Chinese Glossary of Botanical Terms. His glossary and his generous spirit became the stimulus for the project. The Chinese-English Glossary of Botanical Terms, then a standard reference for Chinese botanists, provided the other entries.
When I returned to Cambridge, I discussed the project with a number of potential publishers. They were interested, but the market was limited and printing costs prohibitive. The manuscript was shelved for nearly two decades. The revival of the project developed gradually after receiving a request from a botanist who had used a photocopy of my handwritten manuscript. With the advent of software programs for creating Chinese characters, it was possible to inexpensively replace my crude entries with both a hard copy text and a versatile electronic format.
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