VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 63 



by wliicli it was known in the classics, and the uses to which 

 it was put from most ancient times. Allowing for changes in 

 customs, we find that these uses were very much the same 

 as at the present time. Besides the purposes for which the 

 bamboo is employed in medicine hereafter to be mentioned, 

 the sprouts are eaten for food, and the wood is made into 

 mats, baskets, hats, musical instruments, bows and arrows, 

 pillows, chairs and stools, tables and book-shelves, fences and 

 screens, house frames, cash boxes, tallies and token money, 

 as a substitute for paper, and the thousand and one varied uses 

 to which one sees it put at every turn as he goes about the 

 country. The bamboo grows as far north as the Yangtsze valley, 

 from which point it is for the most part replaced by Pragmites 

 and other reeds. Of the various kinds of bamboo mentioned 

 in the Chinese books we have several interesting specimens. 

 The JJi fj- (Pau-chu), or "spotted bamboo," said to be mark- 

 ed by the tears of Queen Siang, is found in the central prov- 

 inces. The Spiny Bamboo, j^lj ft (Chih-chu), attains a very 

 large size, and is said to be capable of resisting the onsets of 

 burglars, pirates, and the like, when formed into stockades. 

 The \%\^ (Tsung-chu), or "coir bamboo," is nearly solid 

 stemmed, and is used in the manufacture of fans. Bambusa 

 amndi?tacea is called ^ f^" (Lu-chu) by the Chinese. 



Of the many varieties of bamboo found in China, but a 

 possible six are mentioned as being used in medicine. These 

 are : ^ ft (Chin-chu ), \k ft (Tan-chu), ^ ft (K'u-chu), "^ ft 

 (Kan-chu), ^ ft (Kuei-chu), and ^ ft (Tz'u-chu). The parts 

 used are the leaves, 222, the rhizome, the thin outside skin 

 (ln> jii) properly written ^), 212, and the sap (i^, li). The 

 leaves of the Chin-chu, which is a large southern variety, are 

 said to be tussic, tonic, anthelmintic, stomachic, and car- 

 minative, while the root is considered as cooling, tonic and 

 alexipharmic. The sap is used only in rheumatism. Of the 

 Tan-chu {Bambusa piLbenda) the leaves and the root are pre- 

 scribed in the form of a decoction in all diseases supposed to de- 

 pend upon a collection of phlegm. A wash is also directed to 

 be used in cases of prolapsus of the womb. The leaves of the 

 K'u-chu (,7/7///^//>/^?;7rty'^/)6'///h7) are considered to be stimulant, 

 tonic, anthelmintic, and anti-vinous. A wash is used in favus of 



