PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. . 978 
| $ Hi, Graminea obscura, in gonorrhea ab agricolis laudata. 
See also the plants figured in the Phon zo, VIII, 1, 2, under 
#and GH. At Peking Anthistiria arquens, Willd, is 
called 3% 36 huang mao. The mountain people use this 
coarse grass provided with rigid awns, for thatching roofs. 
Henry [lc. , 142] refers the huang mao figured in 
Ch, VIII, 10, to Heteropogon hirtus, Pers., which he terms 
“spear grass” and which at Ichang is much used for thatch. 
It cannot be ascertained what the ¥ 3 tsing mao of the 
Shu king was. It is noticed there (112, “Tribute of Yi” as 
a product of the Province of $f J)| King chou (Hukuang). 
Ledge calls it the three-ribbed rush. The three-ribbed rush 
_ (when presented as tribute) was put in cases, which again 
_ Were wrapped up. 
_ Carne Hian explains that this grass was a kind of mao, 
having three ridges (= #f) and provided with hairs and 
prickles (stiff awns), and used for straining the sacrificial 
Wine. K‘une An-Kvo takes tsing and mao to be different, 
and suggests that tsing is mentioned in the Chou li as a 
Vegetable [v. supra, 361]. But there is a statement by 
BF Kua osx! {who lived in the 7th century B.C.] 
which has come down to us, saying that between the Kiang 
and the Huai river (Kiangsu, Anhui) a grass is found 
whose leaves have three ridges and which is called # A 
tsing mao. 
_ I may notice that SiesoLp [Syn. plant. econ. Japs, 45] 
mentions a Graminea obscura tinctoria sinice 75 3p, japonice 
karias. This is, I suspect, the Imperata tinctoria, Mig. 
[Prol. Fl. japon, 177] :—Ad viride tingendum adhibetur, teste — 
Siebold. But ‘according to Kamprer [v. infra, 461] 
karrias ig Phalaris arundinacea. i ORNS 
_ Another kind of mao grass is, according to Li SHI-CHEN, — 
the % mang, regarding which sea the Kh ya [188]. 
