234 CHINESE MATERIA MEBICA. 



They are used largely in digestive disturbances. A preparation 

 called jp^ ^' (Slien-ch'ii), 1126, or " spirit-leaveii," is described. 

 It is to be made on the fifth of the fifth moon, the sixth of the 

 sixth moon, or during the dog days, and is composed of white 

 flour and the juices of wormwood, Phaseolus mungo^ apricot 

 kernels, burweed, and wild Polygonum^ compounded together 

 with the geomantic influences of the white tiger, the azure 

 dragon, the scarlet bird, the black footstep, the hidden path, and 

 the wingless dragon. It is wrapped in the leaves of the paper 

 mulberry and hung up in the same manner as other kinds of 

 leaven. It comes in yellow cakes, two inches and a half long 

 by one inch and three quarters wide, packed up very neatly, 

 two in a box. They are used as a peptic, stomachic, and cor- 

 rective remedy in dyspepsia, colic, dysentery, the kan disease 

 of children, and in difficulties following drunkenness. It is said 

 to have the power of repressing the milk of puerperal women. 

 Its action is very similar to that of malt. Another kind of 

 leaven is called -fx, 1^ (Nii-ch'ii), and this is simply fermented 

 grain. Its virtues are said to be the same as those of the other 

 forms. Still another kind is known as ,fX |^ (Hung-ch'ii), This 

 is made of non-glutinous rice, whicli is washed clean, mixed 

 with " mother-leaven," and by a complicated, slow process of 

 fermentation, made into a very efficient form of leaven of a 

 red color, which is much used in fermenting grain for distilla- 

 tion. Its medicinal properties are the same as those of the 

 other forms, but it is specially recommended in post-partum 

 difficulties and the dyspeptic conditions of children. 



LEMNA MINOR.— 7jC ^ (Shui-p'ing), \^ # (Fou-p4ng), 

 327. In the Peiitsao three plants are more or less confounded 

 under this title : a large one called ^ (P'in, Marsilid)^ an in- 

 termediate one called ^| (Hsing, Limnaiithe7mini)^ and the one 

 under consideration, which is the smallest of all. There is also a 

 kind with leaves green above and reddish-purple beneath, called 

 ^ ^''[l (Tzii-p'ing), which in Japan is identified as Salvinia 

 natans. Henry says that a sample of the drug FoiL-pHng from 

 Hongkong, which is found in the Pharmaceutical IMuseum in 

 London, is Pistia stratiotcs. In Peking the plant known by 

 this name is Le^nna minor. Cooling, diuretic, antiscorbutic, 



