1 88 CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



GLEDITSCHIA CHINENSIS.— ^ 'M (Tsao-chia), ^ H 

 (Tsao-chio), 1331. This leguminous tree is met with through- 

 out China and Cochin China. It bears a pod which in some 

 specimens attains to a length of fully two feet. This is thin and 

 knife-like in appearance, and contains many flat, brown seeds^ 

 which are used in bathing and in washing clothes. The tree is 

 thickly beset with thorns, which are called ^ T (T4en-ting). 

 At the proper time for the seeds to drop, the people surround the 

 tree with bamboo baskets, and all of the seeds are said to fall 

 from the tree in one night, Li Shih-chen says that sometimes 

 when a tree does not produce fruit, the people bore a hole in 

 the trunk, fill it with from three to five pounds of cast iron, and 

 cover the opening with mud. Then it will bear fruit. At Peking, 

 this beautiful tree is called by the second name given above. 

 It bears small, greenish-yellow, scented flowers, and is much 

 prized as a lawn tree. The medical uses to which the Chinese 

 put the dififerent parts of the tree are very numerous. The pods 

 are considered to be expectorant, emetic, and purgative. They 

 are prescribed in coughs, flatulence, chronic dysentery, and 

 prolapse of the rectum. The seeds and pods are used in the 

 form of a bolus as an antidote in case of metalic poisoning. The 

 coarse powder is blown into the nostrils, or put into the rectum, 

 of the victims of accidental drowning and hanging. It is said to 

 extract the water and to open the passages of the body. Various 

 other difficulties, remarkable in their character, are treated with 

 these seeds, such as difficult labor, dribbling saliva in children, 

 decayed teeth, chronic consumption, and cancer of the rectum. 

 The thorns are used as an anthelmintic, in decoction as a wash to 

 ulcers, skin diseases, caked breast, and retained placentae. They 

 are also used as needles in opening abscesses, and as counter- 

 irritants in tumors and growths. The bark of both the stem and 

 the root is used as an anthelmintic and antifebrile remedy. The 

 leaves are used in decoction for washing sores. Another species 

 or variety of this plant, called ^ ^ ^ (Kuei-tsao-chia), is men- 

 tioned. It is used for the treatment of ulcers and skin diseases. 



GLEDITSCHIA JAPONICA.— It ^ ^"^ (Chu-ya-tsao- 

 chia), ^ ^(Ya-chia), ^ j| (Ya-tsao), 1487. This a Japanese 

 identification of a species of Glediischia differing from Gledits- 



