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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    Pie lu :—The tsz‘ shen is also called ^ Jj% thing ch'ang, J& IT ma hin9, ^ 2$ (hung jung. It grows in Ho si [West of the Yellow River, App. 79] and in the mountain valleys of Yuan kii [in Shan tung, App. 415]. The root is dug up in the 3rd month. After drying by fire it becomes purple. T‘ao Hung-king says that it is not much used in medicine. The ancient authors give confused contradictory accounts of the plant. Some say it resembles in its leaves the Sorrel (Rnmex), others liken the flowers to a Polygonum. The root when dried is of a dark purplish colour, the flesh within is pale red. It resembles tbe root of the tsz1 ts‘ao [Litlio- spermum erythrorluzon. See 23] but is smaller. Ch. AH, 44 :—Tsz1 shen. Rude drawing. A quite different plant is represented under the same Chinese name in Ch. [XXIII, 31]. In the Peking mountains the name tsz1 shen is applied to the root of Polygonum bistort a, L. So moku, A ll, 54 :—^ :§> Polygonum historta, var. foliis ovatis and other varieties.— Phon zo, ATI, 20 v.—Same identification. The typical form of Polygonum historta is called ^ ^ kHian shen (fist ginseng in Chinese) in the So moku [AHI, 53].—Same identification in the Kwa ivi [57]. The lSian shen is mentioned in the P. [XIII, 63]. This name appears first in the Tlu king Pen tslao [11th cent.]. The plant is said there to grow wild in Tsz‘ chon [in Shan tung, App. 367]. Its leaves resemble those of the yang ti [Rumex. See 193], the root is like a lobster, and of a black colour. It is dug up in the 5th month.—The Milan shen is not mentioned in the Ch. P. Smith, 39 :—Bistort root.