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.

    78/638 (page 68)
    Bletia hyacintliina, R. Br., an Orchid with purplish violet flowers, much cultivated at Peking under the popular name of lan hua. This bulb, when put in water, forms a mucilage which at Peking is used by the manufacturers of “cloisonnes.” Henry, Chin, pi., 361 :—Pai ki in Hu pei is Bletia hyacintliina. Oust. Med., p. 68 (43):—Pai ki exported 1885 from Han kow to other Chinese ports 385 piculs. See also an interesting note regarding the pcii ki in the Report on Trade, Chin. Mar. Cast., 1869, p. 68, Ning po, from which port the drug is likewise exported. So moku, XVIII, 34 :—Q Bletia hyacintliina.—Same identification in Sieb., Icon, ined., VIII. 26.—j|f huang lien. P., XIII, i. T., CLIII. Pen king :—Huang (yellow) lien, H; ill wang lien.— The root is officinal. Taste bitter. Nature cold. Non- poisonous. Pie In:—The huang lien grows in Wu yang [in E. Sz ch'uan, App. 396], in river valleys, and in Shu [W. Sz ch‘uan, App. 292], also on the southern slope of the Thai shan [in Shan tung, App. 322]. The root is dug up in the 2nd and 8th months. T‘ao Hung-king:—Wu yang is in Kien p‘ing [in Sz clfiuan and Hu pei, App. 139]. Now the drug brought from Western China is of a paler colour and less juicy than that from Tung yang [in Che kiang, App. 376] and Sin an [in Che kiang, App. 310] which are considered the best. That from Lin hai [in Che kiang, App. 192] is of an inferior quality. Before use the smaller fibres of the root are removed, and then it looks like a string of beads. In the Yao sing lun [7th cent.] the drug is called jOj d1'1 Men'