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.

    140/638 (page 130)
    Li Tang-chi [3rd cent.]:—The lan tslao is the same plant as that which the people now cultivate under the name of a? m m tu ^an9 hiang [Fragrance from Tu liang, in Hu nan, App. 370]. The tse lan [see the next] is also called tu liang hiang. Su Ivung [7th cent.]:—The lan, a fragrant plant, is the same as the tse lan. It has a round stem, a purple receptacle of flowers. In the 8th month the flowers are white. It is commonly called lan hiang (fragrance) and grows by the sides of rivulets. It is also much cultivated as an ornamental plant. Han Pao-sheng :—The lan ts‘ao grows in low, damp places. Its leaves resemble those of the tse lan, but are longer, pointed and coarsely toothed. Flowers red and white, fragrant. Ch‘en Tscang-k£i :—The lan tslao and the tse lan are two distinct plants. The lan tslao grows by the sides of marshes, its leaves are glabrous, succulent. The root is small and of a purple colour. It is gathered in the otli and 6th months and dried in the shade. This is the tu liang hiang. Women mix it (it seems the leaves) with oil to dress their hair.—The tse lan has pointed, slightly hairy leaves, not glabrous, and is succulent. Square stem, purple joints. This is the plant regarding which Su Kung states that it bears white flowers in the 8th month. Li Shi-chen :—The lan tslao and the tse lan are two species of the same genus. Both grow on the borders of water-courses or in swamps. They have perennial roots, purple, branched stems with red joints, opposite leaves issuing from the joints, slightly serrated. But the lan tslao lias a round stem, long joints (internodes), glabrous leaves, whilst the tse lan has a nearly square stem, short joints and leaves covered with hair. The young leaves of both are