PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 323 
See the 2h ya, 259, ta tsiao. The tsiao is repeatedly 
mentioned in the Shan hai king. Kvo P*o explains :—A small 
tree, injurious to wood-worms. The Shan hai king mentions 
also the 4 pg Ts‘in tsiao and as an herbaceous plant. Li sao 
6, 50:—FH 4g shen tsiao. Poivrier du pays de Chen 
(Southern Honan). 19 :—Monticules plantés de poivriers. 
56, 58 :—Poivrier. 
Lt x1:—The ts/ao tree resembles the HE Wi chu yi [see the 
nevt}. It is provided with spines. Its leaves are hard, 
shining. The people of Shu (Sz‘ch‘uan) eall it 3 tv, the 
people of Wu (Chekiang, Kiangsi) term it 2% ming. Of the 
leaves they prepare, by boiling them, a fragrant substance. 
There are several kinds of tsiao. One of them, which 
grows in the mountains of 5% §4 Ch‘eng kao (Department of 
Kai-feng fu, in Honan) has leaves resembling those of the 
bamboo. This tree is like the HB Hy shu tsiao. It (the fruit 
or the leaves) is somewhat poisonous and not: used in 
medicine, The ts‘ao enters into the preparation of beverages 
and meats ; fowl and sucking-pig are seasoned with it, On 
the islands of the Eastern Sea there is a kind of tsiao tree 
the fruit of which is not round but elongate, very fragrant, — 
eat the leaves of this tree, becomes fragrant. 
—— ‘Tsiao is nowadays a general term for fruits with an 
aromatic, hot and pungent taste. ff 4px /a tsiao is cayenne 
Pepper or chillies, #J #f% hw tsiao is the common pepper, 
Piper nigrum, and ZE HR hua tsiao the fruit of Zanthoxylon, 
Chinese pepper. As chillies and common pepper were | 
‘Unknown to the Chinese in the classical period, the term tsiao 
in the Shi king ean only be referred to Zanthorylon, of 
8 This seems to be a mistake. Z*u and ming are ancient terms — | 
» [See the Rh ya, 307,] if, 
With a taste like orange-peel. The flesh of deer, when they 2 ae 
which More than a dozen species are known in China. ‘ The es 
