Inscription on the side of the box in Chinese characters: Yin shan zheng yao 飲膳正要 It is not clear if the Chinese characters on the box (the title of a book about food dated 1330 AD) and the items in it have a direct connection.

This is a cardboard box containing many dried plant specimens. The note within the box contains the inscription: ‘small red bean 赤小豆’. Chinese red beans are also known as Adzuki beans and are popular in Chinese cooking.

This is a wooden box with two British stamps on top containing 1 dried plant specimen and 1 paper label, The inscription on the paper reads ‘Horse-tooth vegetable dried’.

Haworthia truncata.

The stamps on the front of the box date from 1887-1900 and have the inscriptions: “Postage and revenue one half penny” and “postage and revenue one penny” respectively. The box, thus has no direct connection with the specimens in it.

This is a cardboard box containing 3 dried plant specimens wrapped in tissue paper. On the tissue paper, there are two inscriptions:

‘grass seed 草果’ denoting two of the plant specimens and ‘Ch’eng [橙]fruit skin and seeds, dried’ denoting the third. Citrus aurantium / Bitter orange A description of the ‘Ch’eng fruit’ is included in Botanicum Sinicum, by E. Bretschneider, 1895.

This is a glass vial containing 2 dried plant specimens. The vial contains the inscription:

夏草冬蟲 Cordyceps Sinensis / Caterpillar fungus.

The inscriptions translates to: “Cordyceps sinensis”, a fungus closely related to the mushroom.

The note reads: “Ts'ong, hsiao chiao. I know where to find the Latin name hulu, no use sending, no dried. But will try to find people to identify it here in the Botany dept. We must put proper name in when considering proof of the paper.”

The mention of the paper at the end suggests that the specimens are connected to a research publication Lu Gwei-Djen was working on with Joseph Needham.

The box contains:
A glass vial with a dried specimen inside A cardboard box containing 2 organic specimens wrapped in tissue paper A round, wooden box containing dried plant specimens A blue perfume box containing plant seed specimens A note with inscriptions by Lu Gwei-Djen.