VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 121 



of the CampamdacecB. The smell is agreeable, and the taste 

 bitterish and mucilaginous. It is used in fevers, dropsies, 

 rheumatism, and pulmonary diseases, and is also said to be 

 diuretic. The diseases for which it is to be prescribed are all 

 of a grave character, and include cholera and pulmonary 

 hemorrhage. When the innoccuous character of the drug is 

 considered, one wonders how it secured such a reputation, even 

 in China. The fruit is used in prolapsus recti. 



COCOS NUCIFERA. — 15 ip (Yeh-tzu). Also called 

 ^ H M (Yiieh-wang-t'ou, " hornbill head") and ^ ff; (Hsii- 

 vii). In regard to the first of these two names, the Pentsao 

 says that the king of I was angry with the king of Yueh, 

 invited him to be his guest, made him drunk, and took off his 

 head and hung it in a tree, when it turned to a cocoa-nut. 

 So it seems that the slang phrase "my cocoa-nut," referring 

 to the head, has its origin in ancient Chinese legend. This 

 tree is met with in the island of Hainan and on the adjacent 

 mainland of the Kuangtung province, as far north as latitude 

 21°. The albumen of the drupe is eaten by the Chinese, and 

 is considered by them to be very beneficial, promoting a 

 healthy plumpness of figure and face. The juice or milk, 

 called ^\ J^ ^ ( Yeh-tzu-chiang), is considered by some to be 

 cooling and by others heating. This discrepancy is probably 

 due to the fact that one is speaking of the fresh juice, and the 

 other of that which has been fermented. The intoxicating prop- 

 erties of the latter are recognised, and it is said to increase 

 thirst instead of relieving it, as the un fermented juice does. 

 This juice is said to be nutrient and serviceable in hematemesis 

 and dropsy. It has lately been recommended in India as a 

 remedy in phthisis, debility, and cachexia. The bark of the 

 root of the tree is recommended as an astringent and styptic 

 remedy in hemorrhages and fluxes. The shell of the nut, 

 which is sometimes carved and polished to make drinking 

 vessels and ornaments, is incinerated and mixed with wine, 

 to be used in the treatment of secondary and tertiary syphilitic 

 manifestations. The collection of the sweet juice of the 

 flowering branch of this and of the Palmyra palin^ is alluded 

 to as having been known in China since the Han dynasty. 



