38 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



being less esteemed, and chiefly valued for purposes of export 

 to other parts of the world. The Chinese value Baros Camphor 

 as a tonic and aphrodisiac. 



The Imperial Maritime Customs offtcials have paid con- 

 siderable attention to Chinese medicines, and in 1889 a list 

 was published by order of the Inspector-General, the late Sir 

 Robert Hart. This list was compiled from the Returns of 

 each Treaty port, and an attempt was made therein to identify 

 the plants yielding the drugs and to give their province of 

 origin. The difficulties besetting such a task were enormous, 

 but much good work was accomplished. Consul-General 

 Hosie, in his Report on the Province of Ssuch'uan, has compiled 

 a list of Szechuan medicines which very accurately represents 

 the present state of our knowledge on this subject. Not until 

 a complete collection of herbarium material covering flowers 

 and fruits is made, and the whole submitted for identification 

 to some one or other of the great herbaria in Europe, will it be 

 possible to assign correct scientific names to a vast number of 

 these medicines. 



Hosie's list comprises 220 different kinds, of which number 

 189 are of vegetable origin. The trade importance of drugs 

 is enormous ; the exports passing through the Maritime 

 Customs, at the port of Chungking, in 1910, being valued 

 at over Tls. 1,540,000 ; those from Hankow at over 

 Tls. 1,780,000. 



I do not propose entering into a detailed account of the 

 Chinese medicines, but will briefly note a few of the more 

 important and their uses, which may not be without interest. 

 Perhaps the most generally useful drug known from China is 

 rhubarb, " Ta-huang." The Rhubarb plant occurs through- 

 out the highlands of the Chino-Thibetan borderland, but, as in 

 the days of Marco Polo, the best comes from the " Province of 

 Tangut." This region stretches from Sungpan in a north- 

 westerly direction, and includes part of the modern province of 

 Kansu. Rhubarb is found growing among scrub and near 

 rocky watercourses between 7500 feet and 12,500 feet altitude. 

 It is also commonly cultivated, but the wildling is esteemed the 

 best drug. The finest rhubarb is obtained from the plant 

 known botanically as Rheum palmatum, var. tanguticum, and 



