VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 7 



recommended in chronic malarial and palludal poisoning. In 

 India diuretic and astringent properties are attributed to 

 Achryanthes aspera. 



ACONITUM. — A great many species of Aconite are met 

 with in China. Maximowics met with nine in the Amur 

 region, fonr near Peking, and three in Mongolia. Doubtless, 

 if all of the wild and cultivated varieties of Szechuan were 

 enumerated, the list would be very much enlarged. It is also 

 probable that several drugs prepared for the market are derived 

 from the same species, being altered in appearance by cultivation 

 and domestication. Identifications are exceedingly difficult, 

 and it is only necessary to go through the list of those already 

 attempted to see the hopeless state of the subject. In Peking 

 a specimen with a blue flower called ^ '^ gg (Ts'ao-wu-t'ou) 

 is identified as Aconitum kiisiiezoffLi. Tatarinov identified 

 another, called ]^ ^ (Ts'ao-wu), from specimens of the root, as 

 AconituDi japo7iicii))i. Among other identifications are ^^ -^ 

 (Fu-tzu), a blue flowered kind, Aconitum fischeri ; a green 

 flowered plant, ^ ^^ (Wu-t'ou), Aconitum lycoctomini ; and 

 Henry called the wild ^ ^ (Wu-tu), which grows in the 

 mountains of Hupei, Aconitiiju fischeri. The principal names 

 under which the article appears in commerce are [^ '^ (Ts'ao- 

 wu) and [^ '^ HI (Ts'ao-wu-t'ou), 1353 ; ]\\ % (Ch'uan-wu), 

 262, %^ ,1^ (Kuang-wu), 655, and ^ |^ (Wu-t'ou), 1472 ; and 

 pf ^ (Fu-tzu), 343, 5^i|(T'ien-hsiung), 1291, |?(:f j^ (Fu-p'ien), 

 337, and Jll Iff (Ch'uan-fu), 243. Of the three groups, the 

 Customs Lists classify the first as being derived from Aconitiivi 

 kusnezojfii at Newchwang, and from other ports, Aconitum. 

 volubile and Aconitum unciatum ; the second, possibly Aconitum 

 napellus ; and the third, Aconitum fischeri. The jiff ^ (Fu- 

 p'ien) is sliced aconite root, probably of the last named 

 species. 



The statements of the Pentsao in regard to the derivation 

 and classification of the drug are interesting, if not accurate. 

 T'ao Hung-ching, the compiler of the P^ntsaoching^ says 

 that Fti-tzu and IVu-f^ou are names applied to the root of 

 the same plant. That taken up in the eighth moon is called 

 Fu-t2U^ while that dug up in the spring, when the plant 



