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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    of present Kan su, App. 414, 358,383,195]. The root is dug up in the middle of the 4th month. It is from five or six inches to one foot long. The stem is round and of a white colour. It is also gathered for use, and pressed and dried in the sun. Su Sung [11th cent.]:—The root of the tslcio tslung yung is very like the jou tslung yung, and after the flowers have been scraped off and the drug has been pressed it is substituted for the latter ; but it is less potent than the jou ts(ung yung. It is also called lie icing. The Ji hua Pen tslao [10th cent.] terms the herba- ceous tslung yung = ft l [ hua (flowering) ts‘ung yung. The Ch. [XArI, 58] represents sub lie tang a cylindrical stem covered with scales. The plant figured in the Phon zo [Y, 22] sub ^Ij ^ is a small Ovohanchacea. Under the name of so yang the P. [Xlla, 43] mentions yet another plant which the Chinese believe to be a kind of ts‘ung yung. Li Shi-chen says :—The so yang is produced in Su chou (in Kan su). According to the Cho keng-lu [L4thcent.] it grows in the steppes of the Ta ta (Tatars, Mongols) in such places where the wild horse and the scaly dragon have happened to copulate. From the semen dropping upon the ground, sprouts like those of the bamboo shoot forth. The upper part is more succulent than the lower. It is covered with scales, resembles the penis and is a kind of tslao tslung yung. It is reported that lecherous women of the Ta ta use the so yang for purpose of masturbation. It is said that from the contact with the female organ it assumes the characteristics of the natural organ. The natives dig it up, wash it, take off the skin, dry it in the sun, and then use it as a medicine. G