Il6 CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



pieces bound together in the centre with red silk thread. 

 These sell for about a tael a pair." (Braun says that they 

 sell for five cents a pair in Canton.) "The pieces vary from 

 two inches and a half to three inches and three-quarters in 

 diameter ; the smallest pieces fetching the highest price. It is 

 made into a tincture, and is much esteemed in the central and 

 northern provinces as a sedative, carminative, stomachic, and 

 expectorant remedy." The appendix to the Pentsao describes 

 this Hua-chou-chii-hung i ^fc j^^ ft ,fl) in very much the same 

 way as does Porter Smith. It makes it out to be a hairy orange, 

 taken in the immature state and split into a stellate form of 

 seven rays, and after being dried is tied in pairs with red cord. 

 The same orange is sometimes candied whole, or compressed 

 into a cake and then candied. 



Citrus fiisca^ or Citnis ti'ifoliata^ :^n (Chih). This seems 

 to be the best identification attainable. Loureiro, Fianchet, 

 and the Japanese all so regard it. Siebold and Hemsley call 

 it ^gle sepiaria. Other names which the Japanese apply to 

 the same plant are ^ f§ (Kou-chii) and ^ |^ (Ch'ou-chil), 

 but the Pentsao discusses these two latter under a heading 

 separate from the Chih. Bretschneider says that one of the 

 plants thus confounded may be Triphasia trifoiiata^ a thorny 

 bush indigenous to China as well as to Japan and cultivated at 

 Kew. There is no doubt that the products appearing in 

 Chinese medicine are from a Citrus. The most common form 

 is called ^a ^ (Chih-k'o), and consists of the fruits cut in half 

 and dried. It is in circular discs of one or two inches in 

 diameter, nearly flat on the cut side and rounded on the other. 

 The peel is firm and very thick, forming about half the 

 thickness of the specimen. Externally it is rough, of a 

 reddish or blackish-brown color, and internally it is bufi". 

 The taste is bitter and agreeably aromatic. Whether the 

 form known as |n ^ (Chih-shih) is the same fruit gathered in 

 a more immature state and dried, or whether it is the product 

 of a different plant, is not clear. The Pentsao says that both 

 are gathered in the ninth and tenth moons, and while the 

 larjguage is not clear, the place of collection would seem to be 

 somewhat different. The principal sources of supply for both 

 drugs is Szechuan and Kuangtung. The properties ascribed 



