MATERIA MEDICA OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE. 91 
Su Sune [11th cent.]:—Its root is perennial, of a 
yellowish white colour. It has about ten branches, resembles 
the niu st [v. supra] but is shorter The plant grows about 
one foot high. Leaves like young garlic-leaves. The stem 
is slender like a small bamboo-branch. The flowers, which 
appear in the 7th month, are bell-shaped, of a blue colour, 
resemble the k‘ien niu [ Pharbitis. See 168]. It is commonly 
called BE | | ts‘ao (herbaceous) lung tan. There is another 
kind which is called [IJ [| | shan (mountain) lung tan. 
It is of a bitter harsh taste. It does not lose its leaves by 
hoar frost. The mountain people employ it for the cure of 
various diseases. 
Kiu huang, XLVI, 27, and Ch., VII, 6, and X, 40 :— 
Lung tan ts‘ao. The figures represent Gentiana. ; 
In Morrison’s Engl. Chin. Dictionary (1822), lung tan 
ts‘ao is given as the Chinese name for Dictamnus albus. 
See also P. Smrra, 87. Probably a mistake. 
Tarar., Cat., 86 :—Lung tan ts‘ao. Rad. Gentiane.— 
P. Sara [102] suggests that the lung tan ts‘ao may probably 
be the Gentiana asclepiadea, but this species (European) 
has not been recorded from China. 
It seems that in China the name lung tan is applied in 
various provinces to different species of (Gentiana. In the 
Peking mountains lung tan is G. barbata, Froel., and 
G. Olivieri, DC. The Ind. Fl. sin. [11, 123-1388] enumerates 
57 Chinese species of this genus. 
Cust. Med., No. 791 :—Lung tan, Gentiana scabra, Bge. 
(Hu peh). 
Cust. Med., p. 6 (26):—Lung tan ts‘ao exported 1885 
from New chwang 64 piculs,—p. 202 (277), from Ning po 
28 piculs,—p. 132 (178), from Chin kiang 32 piculs,— 
p- 114 (210), from Wu hu 8 piculs, 
