298  PoRTERFIELD: ALGAE IN THE CHINESE CLASSICS 
represent them, so that owing to the character of the language 
and its slow evolution, we feel that the appearance of these 
specific terms in the ancient literature places the knowledge 
back of them at a very early date 
We shall confine ourselves to the algae in this paper. The 
Chinese character, as we are accustomed to term the ideograph, 
is built up of many radicals or elementary symbols supposed 
formerly to have been pictures which taken together represent 
an idea. The character for algae is 
vat Tsao (Fic. 1) and may be resolved 
* oo--- a into four radicals, the ones for grass, 
 caiidan! = water, wood, and mouth, the latter 
: ~eceaes, ©. being repeated three times. The 
Fic. 1. Tsao mouth radical is a simple rectangle, 
a, grass radical; 6, mouth which when repeated three times and 
radical; c, wood radical; e, water placed in the form of a pyramid, 
radical; f, small ideograph mean- 
iii Gee mechiant. two at the bottom and one on top, 
€ up an ideograph which means 
rank or character. This ok smaller ideograph seems to 
carry with its meaning the idea of segmented, or possibly cellular 
(!) structure because of the shape of the thrice repeated box- 
shaped radicals. Evidently the idea in their minds from the 
character used was that of a grass-like, fibrous or stringy, 
cellular plant that grows in the water. Such an analysis leads 
us to believe that they had in general a good idea of what an 
alga is. 
The character for Tsao first appeared in one of the five classics, 
the Canon of Boems (Fic. 1). In the chapter Chao Nan there 
appears the following passage, the romanized version of which 
is here given: ‘‘‘yii bih bien tsao”’ (with respect to the collecting 
of algae). This term is still used today. The term for water 
plants is a much simpler character and therefore is much more 
general in its meaning. It has the grass and water radicals but 
no specifically descriptive ones. There can be no confusion 
then in the use of these terms. 
In support of the cellular or segmented idea of algae brought 
out in the analysis of the character, K’ung An-kuo, in the Canon 
of History, says that ‘‘an alga is an aquatic plant that has 
systematically arranged branching parts, and is used, therefore, 
(figuratively) to denote literature.”” He may here be referring 
