PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 199 
Shi king, 231 [“ Lite in Pin” ]:—In the eighth month 
they cut down the bottle-gourd #. Cxu Hr explains :— 
Same as 3. 
Lace, Shi king [53] says :—The #4 p‘uo in the Shi king 
is no doubt the bottle-gourd, called also hu and hu lu. When 
the fruit has become thoroughly hard and ripe, the shell, 
emptied of its contents, can be used as a bladder. We 
often see one or more tied to boat-children on the Chinese 
tivers, to keep them afloat, should they fall into the water. 
Shi king, 53:—The gourd ( #4) has still its bitter leaves 
and the crossing at the ford is deep. Mao explains :—The 
_ p'ao is the same as the #§ hu. Its leaves are bitter, cannot be 
eaten. Cu Hr says :—The fruit was not yet hard enough to 
serve the purpose of a bladder in crossing a stream. 
Lu x1 says :—The young leaves of the p‘ao are eaten. 
The people prepare from them a soup of a very pleasant taste. 
The people from Honan to #3 JH Yang chou (Chekiang 
and Anhui) eat these leaves till the eighth month, when they 
become bitter, wherefore the Shi says the p‘ao has its 
bitter leaves, 
Shi king, 487 :—He poured out his spirits into calabashes 
(p‘ao), ie, Duke Liv, the ancestor of the Chou. CHENG 
Han explains :—They used calabashes for cups to drink. 
_Coxr, Anal., 185:—Am I a bitter gourd (# I)? How 
can Ibe hung up out of the way of being eaten ? 
Lbidem, 52:—Admirable was the virtue of Hur, with a 
“Single bamboo-dish of rice and a single gourd-dish of drink 
— Fh tk. : 
The Ku kin chu explains that p‘iao is a kind of hu or bottle 
gourd. The term is also applied to a drinking vessel 
made of it, oe 
The PY ya [11th century] states that the above names 
referring to the bottle gourd are not synonyms but names 
Ps. 
