308 BOTANICON sINICUM. 
and is then of a scarlet colour. The seeds within resemble 
the head ‘of a Mantis. Its common name is #¢ ZH chi pao 
(red hailstone). The root is called 4: J # tu kua hen. 
It is fibrous, and produces from three to five pale yellow tubers — 
of the size of a finger. The seeds as well as the fruit are used 
in medicine. ; 
Li SHI-cHEen :—The wang kua is a climbing plant. It is 
hispid. The young plant is eaten. The leaves are roundish 
and resemble a horse’s hoof in shape, but are pointed, green on 
the upper side, and paler and rough underneath. It blossoms & : 
in the 6th or 7th month. Small yellow flowers with a 5-cleft 
corolla, in racemes. The ripe fruit is red or yellow witha 
rough skin. The root does not resemble the ko root [as Su 
Kone asserts] but is rather like a small Lua lou root. The 
flour contained in the root is very white and fat. To obtain 
the real root it must be dug up to the depth of from 2 to 3 feet. 
The people of Kiang si cultivate it in a rich soil, and use the — a 
root for food, as they use the shan yao (Dioscorea).—Other — 
names of the plant: J fw JIN ma pao kua, SF Fit I ye tien : 
hua, Fil ii HE shi ku ts‘ao, XS DS FG kung kung sit. tes 
Ch., XXII, 30 :—Wang kua or chi pao. Thladiantha 
dubia, Bee. [order Cucurbitacew].—See also Kiu huang, LI, é 
15, ma pao rh, ea 
Tavar., Cat. 15:—Chi pao. Fructus Thladianthie — 
dubie.—This plant is much cultivated at Peking under the 
name of ch‘i pao rh, The description in the P. agrees in@ — 
general way. 
In Japan, where no species of Thladiantha is met with, 
the Chinese name E Wis applied to Trichosanthes cucumeroilles, 
Ser. See So moku, XX, 34, 
114.— TS ko. P.. mV lie, 22 7 ORT: 
Cemp. Classics, 39, 
Pen king i Bik ko hen, name of the root, ¥3 ie ko ku 
