Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider].

  • Emil Bretschneider
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Su Sung [11th cent.]:—The drug mu hiang is brought in ships from Kuang chon (Canton), but is not produced there. Large wrinkled root like that of the Lie tsz1 (Solarium melongena). The leaves resemble those of the yang tli [v. supra] but are longer and larger. They are also like those of the shan yao {Dioscored). Large root. Purple flowers. The buds of the root used in medicine. The mu hiang root looks like a rotten bone. That which is of a bitter taste and sticks to the teeth is of a good quality. There is a sort of mu hiang which grows in Kiang and Huai [Kiang su and An lmi, App. 124, 89], and is called i t‘u (native) tsling mu hiang, which is not much used in medicine. The Slia pen ts‘ao [10th cent.] states that in the garden of the prince Meng Ch‘ang the mu hiang was cultivated. It was a plant from three to five feet high, leaves eight or nine inches long, wrinkled, soft, and covered with hair. Yellow flowers. This was probably the tlu mu hiang. In Buddhist books the mu hiang is called ffcL kii~se-tlo (probably hush tarn is intended, Costus). K‘OU Tsung-SHI [12th cent.]:—The tsling mu hiang is found beyond the frontier [west of] Min cliou [in Kan su,. App. 223]. The plant has leaves like the niu />lang [Arctium Lappa. See 91] but they are narrower and longer. The stem is from two to three feet high and bears one yellow flower: resembling the kin tslien (Inula). The fresh root is fragrant: and has a pungent taste. Ch‘en Ch‘eng [ 11th cent.]:—The mu hiang is brought to China from foreign countries, as has already been stated by T‘ao IIung-king and Su Sung. But the mu hiang which is produced in Ch‘u chou [in An hui, App. 25] and Hai chou [in Kiang su, App. 48] is the root of a plant called % ££ ma ton ling (horse’s bell), which is also used in medicine.