PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 281 
The pao grass is mentioned in the / ki [1, 103] :—One 
should not eater the ruler’s gate in rush sandals (i ff). 
The Shuo wen says the pao is a grass of which the people of 
i %B Nan yang (Honan) make coarse shoes. In the 
Han shu [quoted in AK.D.] it is state. that the pao is also 
fit for being woven into mats. 
The Tso chuan [369, 372], referring to the year B.C. 580, 
quotes a passage from an ode of the Shi king, now lost, which 
reads as follows :— 
Though you have silk (#§) and hemp (iii) 
Do not throw away your grass (#') and rushes. 
What Leege translates by rushes is ff] Mua! in the Chinese 
text. The ancient commentary says that it is a grass akin 
to the kien. 
The 7 li [chapter on Mourning Rites} notices shoes made of 
— Muai and He piao grass [v. supra, 458]. According to some 
_ authors of the Han, quoted in K./)., the k‘ua: was also 
used for making cords and mats. 
P, XXIII, 14, kuai. Cuten Ts‘anc-‘t [8th century] 
says that the seeds of the k‘uai grass are eaten by the people 
like rice, 
Horrm. & Scuures, 538, fifi, Scirpus cyperinus, Kth. 
But the drawing in the Pion zo [XLI, 17-18] under 
this Chinese name looks rather like Andropogon tropicus, 
Sprengel. 
Keo Pro, in commenting upon the Shan hai king, says tha 
= the ¥ kien, repeatedly mentioned there, is akin to the ip kien 
and the 3 mao, and that the fij sin, spoken of in the same — 
Work, is the same as the #%, pao. Only the deseription of the 
ae in the Shan hai king (yellow flowers, red frait which 
Makes those who eat it handsome) does not agree with this 
e Wentification, : 
