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

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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$but are smaller. The flowers are arranged in spikes and appear between the leaves. The flower-buds (?) are like wheat-grains, small and of a red colour. In the south the unopened flowers are called Ate han t‘cii liua. They are prepared with salt water and mixed with sweet dregs. In winter they then become like amber in colour and are of a pleasant, fragrant and pungent taste. Li Shi-CHEN:—The shan Viang grows in the south (of China). Its leaves resemble those of ginger. The flowers are red, very pungent. The fruit (or seeds) is like Cardamom \tslao tou Von, see 58]. The root resembles the tu jo [see 55] and the kao Hang lciang [see 57]. The seeds are substituted for the ts‘ao tou Vou, but are very hot and strong. Ch., XXV, 53 :—Shan Vang. Rude drawing, perhaps Alpinia. Louu., FI. cochin., 13 :—Canna indica, L., sinice san Vam (slum Vang).21 So moku, I, 11 :—j[| Sc Alpinia japonicci, Miq. Oust. Med., p. 372 (416):—Shan Vang seeds exported 1885 from Canton 116 piculs.—The same exported also from Han kow. See Ilanlc. Med., p. 35. 57. — ifaj Ts£ kao Hang Vang. P., XIV«, 32. T., CLXXVIII. Pie lu:—Kao Hang Vang. The root and the fruit officinal. Taste pungent. Nature very hot. Non-poisonous. It is produced in the district of Kao liang [in Kuang tung, App. 117]. The root is dug up in the 2nd and 3rd months. 21 Canna Indira is cultivated at Peking under the name of /k dL mci jen txiao. It does not seem that the shan ldang in the l\ refers to this jtlant,$