CHINA. 



321 



Natural experienced Chinese botanist is said to be able to dig- 

 Hiitory. cover the precise situation by the smell which it exhales. 

 *"Y" ' It is said to admit of being transplanted ; and its inner 

 part is used as a remedy in diseases of the liver, chest, 

 &c. but it is said to be necessary for the patient to ab- 

 stain from acids while using it. Artemisia, or mugwort, 

 called in China the physicians' herb, is used for a variety 

 of purposes. It is kept in flower-pots as an ornamental 

 plant, and continues long in flower. Its leaves, when 

 powdered, are taken as a styptic in cases of bleeding at 

 the nose, or in spitting of blood. The leaves of the 

 prickly mugwort are often dried and used as tinder, or 

 as stuffing in making mattresses, quilting, &c. This is 

 chiefly the use made of the wild mugwort, the leaves of 

 which are more soft and silky, and the downy balls of 

 which are formed into girdles for the sciatica, or quilted 

 stockings for rheumatism in the limbs. Tchoang, a 

 name given to the large comfrey, the root of which is 

 taken by the wealthy Chinese in pills, or in decoction, 

 ..aseng. every morning, as a salutary medicine in general. Gin- 

 seng, called by the Tartars Orhota, that is, " the queen 

 f plants," is the most esteemed of all the Chinese me- 

 dicinal plants ; and, in their opinion, is possessed of al- 

 most every possible property. It abounds in the moun- 

 tains of Eastern Tartarys in places where the trees are 

 tall, and the ground free from underwood, and forms the 

 principal wealth of that country. No private person, 

 however, is allowed to gather it, but the Emperor sends 

 yearly ten thousand soldiers for the purpose of collecting 

 it; a service apparently rather un warlike, but yet neither 

 exempt from danger nor fatigue. They are loaded with 

 their provisions, consisting of toasted millet ; have neither 

 beds nor tents ; but pass the night in the forests or at 

 the foot of a rock, exposed to all the inclemencies of the 

 weather, for the space of six months. A certain extent 

 of forest is allotted to every hundred, and these again 

 are stationed at certain intervals in bands of ten men, and 

 then advance in a regular line, searching carefully for the 

 plant as they proceed. After the time, appointed for 

 traversing a given space, is expired, the mandarins, who 

 preside over the work, and who reside in tents in the 

 neighbourhood, send messengers to see that the number 

 of troops be complete, to search for such as may have 

 lost their way, to fill up the places of those who have 

 perished by wild beasts, and to appoint another portion 

 of ground for them to pass over. Ginseng, besides be- 

 tnj; employed in almost every disease by those who can 

 procure it, is regarded as a general cause of longevity, 

 and is therefore used by such a, are in good health, as a 

 mean of increasing and preserving their vigour. The 

 Jesuit Lafitau, guided by the description given of the 

 Chinese ginseng by Jartoux in Leltre s Edifiantt g, disco- 

 vered the same plant in the woods of Canada, in 17^5 ; 

 and, according to his account, the Indian name, C'trent- 

 ogacn, has a similar signification as the Chinese word 

 ginseng. Both of them signify a man's thigh, an appel- 

 lation which has been given to the plant, because its roots 

 are often found to resemble the body of a man from the 

 middle downwards ; and hence it ha been supposed by 

 some botanists to be the same with the Mandrogora of 

 the ancients. A celebrated drug among the Chinese, 

 called Ngo-kia, may be here mentioned, though it is not 

 indeed a vegetable, but merely a kind of glue made from 

 the akin of a black ass, after it has been steeped in the 

 water of a particular well near the city Ngo-hiet>, in the 



Natural 

 History. 



province of Shan-tong. It is supposed to be useful in 

 various distempers, but chiefly, according to the report 

 of the missionaries, in diseases of the lungs. "~' 



Throughout the vast extent of the Chinese empire, is Trees, 

 found every kind of tree known in Europe j and a mul- 

 titude of others peculiar to the country. * The most 

 useful and singular are : The Tie-lee-moo, or iron wood, 

 which grows to the height of the oak/ and the wood of 

 which is remarkably hard, and so heavy as to sink in 

 water ; whence it is generally used by the Chinese in 

 making anchors. The Nan-moo, or Chinese cedar, one 

 of the tallest trees and most durable kinds of wood in the 

 country, which is much used in making the beams and 

 pillars of the Imperial Palaces. The Lo-ya-song, a 

 spec'es of pine, resembling that of Europe, but distin- 

 guished by several peculiarities, euch as, that its leaves 

 fall in autumn, that its wood is exceedingly hard, and 

 that its sap is of a poisonous nature, occasioning pimples 

 and blisters on the skin of the workmen in cutting it. 

 The Siang, resembling a chesnut, especially in its fruit, 

 the external husk of which is employed as a substitute 

 for the gall-nut in dyeing, and the kernel given to the 

 hogs, though sometimes boiled in water and vinegar, and 

 used by the mountaineers as food. The Lung-ju-shu, 

 about the size of a plum-tree, the wood of which is em- 

 ployed in making furniture, and the fruit of which, re- 

 sembling unripe cherries, yields a kind of jelly, with 

 which the country people rub their hands in winter, as a 

 preservative from chilblains. The Tcha-ke, said to be 

 without bark, to burn readily even when green, to last 

 longer than any other fire-wood, and. when made into 

 charcoal, to produtfe a strong heat without either smoke 

 or smell. Tchoo-koo, a kind of sycamore, resembling 

 the mulberry in its appearance, but the fig-tree in its 

 fruit, and the inner bark of which is used in the manu- 

 facture of paper. The Kin kooang-tsee, or sour jujube, 

 a large tree, with fine-grained wood, and fruit resembling 

 large jujubes, the stone of which is shaped like, a heart, 

 and formerly much used as a superstitious ornament. 

 The TBC sing-yuen-pe, or juniper cypress, resembling 

 the juniper in its wood and the cypress in its leaves, with 

 a round green berry, larger than that of the juniper, con- 

 taining two reddish grains shaped like a heart, and ex- 

 tremely hard. The Oo-kieoo moo, or tallow tree, about 

 the size of a cherry tree, with leaves of a bright red co- 

 lour, shaped like a heart, the seed or fruit oi which is 

 surrounded by a pulp resembling tallow in colour, smell, 

 and most of its properties, which, after being mixed with 

 a little lintseed oil, is made into candles, but from its not 

 being sufficiently purified, they generally burn with a thick. 

 smoke, faint light, and unpleasant smell. -The Wax- 

 tree, of which there are two kinds, one short and shrub- 

 by, growing in dry rocky ground, and the other taller, 

 requiring a moist soil. On these trees, a kind of white 

 wax is deposited by certain small insects, which do not 

 naturally frequent them, but which, when once placed 

 upon them, always remain. The wax, which is ga- 

 thered in September, is white, bright, and transparent ; 

 and a single ounce of it, mixed with a pound of oil, 

 is sai'i to produce a substance little inferior to bees- 

 wax. It is much used as a salve ; and is also taken by 

 the Chinese, in a dose of one ounce, ai a stimulant or 

 exhilarant, when they have occasion to make any pub- 

 lic appearance, which requires courage and assurance. 

 Tong-tchoo, resembling the walnut, when covered with, 



The Chinese gardeners have a wonderful passion for reducing their flowering shrubs, and even their forest trees, to a dwarfish size ; 

 * m.Fionaries atsure us, that they have seen cedars and pines, which were more than 40 years old, and vH not above two feel 

 in height, while the trunks, branches, and leaves, were all well-propurtiened. 



VOt. vl. PART I. 2 * 



