114 CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



other species of Citrus, and considerable improvement in flavor 

 has resulted therefrom. The fruit is considered to be digestive, 

 corrective, antivinous, and is specially recommended for the 

 use of pregnant women. The peel is bitter, but very aromatic. 

 If enough is used, it makes an excellent stomachic. The 

 Chinese use it in coughs and dyspepsia. The leaves are bruised 

 together with onions, and applied to the temples for headache. 

 The flowers are used in cosmetic preparations. 



Citrus inedica in China, as in southern Europe, is rep- 

 resented by many varieties. The most common one is that 

 of Citrus chirocarptis^ ^ ^ \^ (Fo-shou-kan), 323. The fruit 

 is formed by the natural separation of its constituant carpels 

 into a form somewhat resembling a hand with the fingers laid 

 closely together longitudinally. Why it should have been 

 called Buddha's hand is not clear. The Jews carried the 

 citron (ethrog) in the left hand at the Feast of Tabernacles as a 

 sacrifice of a sweet smell, and possibly the Chinese name of 

 this denotes some similar practice connected with the worship 

 of Buddha ; or it may have been thought to resemble the hand 

 of Buddha's image. The tree grow's near the water in all of 

 the southern provinces. The leaves are long and pointed and 

 the branches prickled. The yellow fruit attains a very large 

 size in some cases, and is much prized in Central and Northern 

 China, where it is carried in the hand, or placed on tables, to 

 give out its strong and delicious perfume. In the south, where 

 the fruit is plentiful, it is also placed in clothes-presses with 

 the same object in view ; and it is made into a preserve, or the 

 juice is used to wash fine linen. The product is found in 

 commerce principally in the form of the dried peel, -j^ :^ ^ 

 (Fo-shou-p'ien), 325. This occurs in fine dried slices, thin 

 and shrivelled, the greenish-yellow cuticle fringing the white, 

 inert, cellular tissue which forms the greater part of the drug. 

 The smell is citron-like, but faint, and the taste aromatic and 

 bitter. Some of the drug met with in the drugshops is very 

 dark. Stomachic, stimulant, tussic, expectorant, and tonic 

 properties are attributed to this drug. ^ ^ |£ (Fo-shou-kan) 

 is simply the whole fruit dried, and does not differ in use from 

 the peel. The root and the leaves are used for the same 

 purposes as the peel, and the flowers appear in commerce, but 



