Chinese herbology
(3) Although the above herbs are common in TCM prescriptions, they cannot be purchased if we refer only to their Latin names. One likely reason is that TCM pharmacists rarely, if ever, use the Latin names of the herbs. The Chinese names, or the transliterated names (pinyin) should be used instead. For example, if we ask for "flos Lonicerae" we will almost certainly get a blank look. However, if we ask for "Jin Yin Hua" or	金银花 we will connect immediately, even though the pharmacist may speak any of the large number of Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese, where the herb is known as "Kum Gen Fa", or Golden Silver Flower, in Hong Kong). Wherever possible, use the written form (金银花) to avoid miscommunication and/or mis-pronunciation, since there is no dialect form of the written language.