MATERIA MEDICA OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE. 19 
dentated. The branches (petioles?) are black, the stem is 
covered with hair. The root is dug up in the 3rd and 9th 
months. It is hairy, has hands, feet, a face and eyes like a 
man possessed of a god. 
T‘ao Huna-Kive :—Shang tang (the locality mentioned 
in the Pie lu) is south-west of Ki chou [Northern part of 
present Chi li, App. 119]. The drug which now comes from 
that locality is a long root of a yellow colour resembling the 
fang feng {an umbelliferous plant. See below, 31]. It is 
succulent and sweet, and highly valued. The drug brought 
from Po tsi [in the present Corea, App. 261] is slender and 
hard, of a white colour. In taste it is weaker than the 
Shang tang drug. There is a third sort produced in Kao li 
[Corea, App. 116]. This is the same as the Liao tung drug 
[mentioned in the Pie lu]. It is of large size but devoid 
of juice, soft and inferior to that from Po tsi. But the best 
of all is the Shang tang drug.* The plant sends up only one 
straight stalk. Its leaves are four or five together (ze. four or 
five leaflets at the top of a common petiole). The flowers are 
of a purple colour, There is a Corean song in praise of the 
Ginseng (5 BE A fE A B& 3) saying: the branches 
(petioles) which grow from my stalk are three in number, 
and my leaves are five by five. The back part of the leaves 
is turned to the sky, the upper side downwards. Whoever 
would find me must look for the # kia tree. Tso Hunc- 
KING explains that the kia tree resembles the tung 
(Paulownia), growing very high and casting a large shade.’ 
In this kind of place the Ginseng is found in great abundance. 
The gathering and preparing of the drug require a great 
deal of experience. There is some Ginseng found at present 
* Nowadays, on the contrary, the Ginseng from Liao tung, Manchuria 
and the northern part of Corea is considered the best, No Ginseng is now 
produced in §,E. Shan si or ancient Shang tang. 
* Regarding the hia tree, see Bot. sin., II, 226, 
