PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 177 
plant, it is impossible to guess what it was. WuLLIAMS 
| Dict., 188] is of opinion that it is a cruciferous plant, perhaps 
‘Crambe tartarica (a quite arbitrary identification). Lreet 
has no doubt that the fe’ was a kind of radish. 
E., 104, family JE, without figure [v. supra, 50}. 
364.—As has been already noticed [v. 346] the character 
@ &@, which is met with thrice in the Shi hing, and which 
Lace translates inv: ariably by * white millet,” has, according 
to Mao’s interpretation, three different meanings in the Sh. 
In the passage p. 284 he makes it to mean a vegetable 
fa supra, 24]. 
Lu kr says:—The // is a vegetable which resembles the 
GH Mu ts‘ai [see 865, Sonchus or Lactuca]. Its stalk is of 
2 pale green colour. The leaves are succulent, contain a 
white milky juice, are edible both raw and cooked. The 
name 7 for this plant is usual in Ff Jp Tsing chou 
7 (Southern Shantung). The best is found in PF jaf Si ho and 
— WEPY Yen men. The people there ( A, natives; but 
_ wother reading has $f Al, foreigners) are very fond of it 
and do not allow its being exported beyond the frontier. 
am P., XXVIII, 17, the ki is identified with the 8 E 
- pat kit, a kind of lettuce. 
3 The Pen tsSao gives ki also as a synonym for ti huane J 
Rehmannia ¢ glutinosa (wv. supra, 180]. 
865,28 tu. The Chinese commentators of the Classics 
gree that this character in the Sd/ is applied to several 
- distinct plants. More generally it denotes, as Lege correctly 
_ ‘States, the sow-thistle, Sonchus. Several species of wild- 
growing Luactuca also go under this name. 
: Compare supra, page 33, where tu is given as a § ynonym 
for  3z ku ts‘ai (bitter vegetable). 
— Shi king, 56:—Who says that the sow-thistle (tu) i is 
bitter ? lt is as sweet i us the shepherd’s purse [esi, v. 367). 
+ 
