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
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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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    Pie lu:—The tan si ten, also called yfc ch‘i shen (red ginseng) grows in Thing po [in Ho nan, App. 379], in river valleys, and in T‘ai slian [in Shan tung, App. 322]. The root is dug up in the 5th month and dried in the sun. T‘ao Hong-king :—The Thing po [mentioned in the Pie lu~\ is a mountain situated in I yang [a district in Ho nan, App. 107]. The Huai River takes rise on it. It is not to he confounded with another mountain of the same name in Lin hai in the province Kiang tung [Che kiang, App. 192 and 124]. The tan shen is a common plant in Mid China. It has a square stem covered with hair, purple (or violet) flowers. The people call it sometimes elm ma. Wu P‘o [3rd cent.]:—In its stem, leaves and seed capsules it resembles the jen \_Perilla. See 67]. The plant is covered with hair. The root is of a red colour. In the 4th month it opens its purple (violet) flowers. Su Sung [11th cent.]:-—It grows in all the prefectures of the provinces of Shen si [modern Shen si and E. Kan su] and Ho tung [Shan si, App. 80], also in Sui cliou [in Hu pei, App. 314]. The leaves resemble those of the po ho {Mentha), are covered with hair. Purple flowers in spikes. The root is of a red colour, of the thickness of a finger. One plant has many roots. Li Shi-CHEN :—There are five kinds of shen [ginseng. Comp, above, 4], distinguished according to their colour and their effect upon the five viscera : — 1. —The A ^ jen s^eri [true ginseng. See 3]. It operates upon the spleen and is called the lntamj (yellow) shen. 2. —The [ sha shen [see 4]. It operates upon the lungs and is called the pai (white) shen.