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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    standing opposite. The Shan hai king states :—On the Fou shan (mountain) there grows a plant with leaves like the ma. It has a square stem, red flowers, black fruit. It smells like the mi wu [see Rh ya, 89] and is called him ts‘ao. It is good for curing ulcers. Now it is commonly called IpL yen tslao. Some sa}r it has the appearance of the mao (Imperata) and is fragrant, but that is not the hiln ts‘ao which the people cultivate. The plant hui [Bot. sin., II, 40G], frequently mentioned by poets in ancient times, is unknown to T‘ao Hung-king, as he says. Chcen Ts‘ang-k‘i [8th cent.]:—The hiln tslao is the same as the ^ ling ling hiang (fragrance). Hun is the name for the root of the hui plant. Ma Chi [10th cent.]:—The ling ling Juang grows in the mountain valleys of Ling ling [in Hu nan, App. 196]. Its leaves resemble those of the lo le (Ocimum basilicum). The Nan yi'te chi [5th cent.] says that the local name of the plant is yen tslao [«. supra']. It is also called hiln ts‘ao or hiang tslao (fragrant herb). This is the hiln ts‘ao of the Shan hai king. Su Sung [11th cent.]:—The ling ling hiang is now a common plant in Hu kuang [App. 83] where it grows in marshy places. Its leaves resemble those of hemp, each two standing opposite. Square stem. In the 7th month it produces very fragrant flowers. In ancient times it was called him tslao. The people of Southern China dry it by artificial heat till it assumes a yellow colour. It is also found in Kiang and Huai [An hui and Che kiang, App. 124, 89] and used as a perfume. But this is less valued than that from Hu kuang and Ling nan. The fragrance increases when the plant decays. In ancient times the hiln ts‘ao was used in medicine, and the name ling ling hiang was unknown. But now the people use it only as a perfume added to cosmetics.