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.

    131/638 (page 121)
    Li Shi-CHEN :—The ts‘ao tou lc‘ou and the Ip! ^ ts‘ao Jaw are not the same, as some believe. There are differences. Now the tou Jc‘ou produced in Kien ning [in Fn kien, App. 138] has a fruit as large as the lung yen, but a little longer. It (the capsule) has a yellowish white thin rind with prominent ridges. The seeds are as large as the su sha (Amomum villosum, Lour.), pungent and fragrant. But the tslao huo which grows in Tien [Yiin nan, App. 338] and in Kuang [Kuang tung and Kuang si, App. 160] has a large oblong fruit resembling the ho tszi (Terminalia chehula). The rind (of the capsule) is black and thick, the ridges are close together. The seed is coarse, pungent and of an unpleasant odour recalling that of Cantharides. The people use it as tea or in various other ways as a spice. The people of Kuang take the fresh ts‘ao Jcuo and steep it in the juice of the mei fruit (Prunus murne) mixed with salt. After it has become red it is dried in the sun and offered with wine. This is called hung yen (red salt) tslao Jaw. The small unripe fruit is called nf S' ying fc‘o she (parrot’s tongue). In the time of the Mongol dynasty the ts(ao Jcuo was much valued as a spice. Li Shi-chen quotes from Buddhist books the Sanscrit name of the tou Fou, being & 37ft fH su-Jci-mi-lo-si.— Su/cmil is the Tibetan name for Cardamom [see further on]. Ch., XXV, 30 :—Tou Fou. Representation of an Amomum with large leaves and small, wrinkled capsules. Lour., FI. cochin., 6 :—Amomum globosum. Sinice tsao Jceu (tslao tou Fou). Corolla supera, albo-rubra . . . . Pericarpium globosum .... cortice tenui fragili. Tatar., Cat., 5 :—7Yao tou Fou, Cardamomum. This is the Large Round Chinese Cardamom figured and described sub ts'ao (tou) Jdou in Hanb., Sc. pap., 95, 96, 248.—P. Smith, 14. 16