VEGETABLK KINGDOM. 65 



been held in high esteem from very early times. Hence the 

 second name given above. It is met with in hard, broken, 

 angular pieces, usually opaque, as smooth as porcelain, of a 

 whitish or bluish vitreous color, easily broken, and usually 

 scented with some perfume. It absorbs oil, and thereby be- 

 comes transparent. When the oil has been again driven away 

 by heat, the internal structure of the concretion becomes 

 apparent, showing it to be most beautifully veined. Tabasheer 

 has the lowest refractive power of all known substances. It is 

 made up almost entirely of silica ; there being sometimes a 

 varying amount of potash, lime, iron, and vegetable matter. 

 It can therefore have practically no medical virtues. But the 

 Chinese, true to their ideas of its mysterious origin, prescribe 

 it in acute choreic, convulsive, and epileptiform diseases of 

 children, as well as in apoplexy and paralysis. In India it is 

 believed to have stimulant and aphrodisiac qualities. The drug 

 is usually adulterated in China with bone earth and other 

 substances. A similar substance has been fouud in jungle grass. 



BARKHAUSIA REPENS.— ]^ % 5S (Hu-huang-lien), 

 482. This is the identification of De Candolle, Loureiro calls 

 it Picris rcpens. It is a foreign drug, coming from the 

 country of ^ (Kiikonor), where it is called %i^%\^ (Ko- 

 ku-lu-tse). As is usually the case with foreign drugs, T'ao 

 Hung-ching says that it comes from Persia, which is the source 

 of many, though not quite all of the drugs introduced into 

 China from the west. Li Shih-chen says that the best quality 

 of the root has a top resembling the bill of a bird, and when 

 cut, the cross section resembles the eye of the niynah. He 

 also says that the shooting plant resembles that of Brunella 

 vulgaris. The dried root, as met with in the shops, is ia 

 irregular, tapering, contorted pieces, varying from one to two 

 inches in length and about the size of a lead pencil. The 

 cuticle is dark brown or blackish, having tubercles, and other- 

 wise irregularly wrinkled and marked. It has a hay-like 

 odor and an exceedingly bitter taste. The Pentsao says that 

 if the drug is true, a smoke-like dust should come from the 

 interior of the root when it is fractured. The drug is now said 

 to be produced in Nanhai, and also in Shensi and Kansu. 



