106 USES OF THE COMMON RUSH IN CHINA. 



USES OF THE COMMON HUSH IN CHINA. 

 By H. F. Hance, Ph.D., &c. 



"Walking through the streets of Canton, towards the close of last 

 summer, in company with the Rev. Dr. Graves, of the Southern Bap- 

 tist Convention, our attention was arrested by seeing hanging up in a 

 shop a number of little bundles of pith folded longitudinally, and 

 then secured by the ends being wrapped round spirally, just as one 

 might make up a hank of twine, the whole forming a cylinder about 

 four inches long and half an inch in diameter ; whilst from the end of 

 the bundle projected two or three unpeeled stems crowned with their 

 inflorescence, an examination of which at once showed that they were 

 referable to our common " Soft Rush," Juncus effusus, Linn., at one 

 time so largely employed for making the seats of chairs, and for rush- 

 lights.* In answer to our inquiries, the native shopman said that a 

 decoction of this pith was an admirable cooling medicine, of sovereiga 

 efficacy in febrile affections ; it had only to be boiled for some time, 

 and the w^ater drunk. Neither my companion nor myself have yet 

 availed ourselves of this powerful remedy, and I should imagine that, 

 like the Irishman's " stone broth," it would certainly require the 

 addition of some condiment to impart to it flavour, to say nothing of 

 therapeutic virtue. 



From inquiries amongst other Chinese, it would seem that this 

 species furnishes all the lamp-wicks consumed in this part of the 

 empire. Candles are very seldom used, except in lanterns and for 

 sacrificial purposes ; and the ordinary light is a saucer, or a lamp like 

 a candle-stick, but with no aperture for the reception of a candle, the 

 top being slightly excavated to hold oil, and the pith ^ick laid across 

 this, and one of the ends lighted ; or sometimes oil is poured into a 

 glass half filled with water, the wick being held in a spiral tube of 

 wire, with three hooked arms to attach to the edge of the vessel. A 

 Chinese literate, in the service of a friend in Canton, informed me 

 that the Juncus is extensively cultivated in one district, for its pith 

 w4nch is extracted by women, who run a blunt needle along the stem, 

 splitting it up, and stripping out the pith entire. f 



Dr. Giaves discovered a third and quite unexpected use to 

 which this ingenious people put the pith, the manufacture, namely, 



* See an interesting note by the late Mr. Borrer, in Hooker's Journal of 

 Botany, vol. vii,, p. 381. 



t There can be no doubt that this is the Scirpus capsularts of Loureiro, 

 who thus writes of its employment (Fl. Cochinch. i., /)6) : " Culmi excorticati 

 decoctum diureticum est et refrigerans, soletque utilitor ministrari in accessu 

 caloris febrilis. In usu oeconomico prujbet candelis et lucernis ellychnium asqua- 

 literporosum etaptum ad sugendum oleum, lucemque purissimam diffundendam." 

 The Cantonese name he gives, Tom sin tsao, (tang sum t'so, lit. " lampwick 

 grass,") is that by whicia it is at present known. His editor, "Willdenow, 

 pointed out that the plant is a Juncus, and Ijoureiro's only reason for referring 

 it to Scirpus seems to have bf en its having triandrous flowers : a character which 

 Dr. Engelmann (Trans. Acad. Sc. St. Louis, ii., 443) asserts to be constant in all 

 specimens of this widely difl'used species. 



