agS CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



P. 



PACHYMA COCOS.— :gl^ ;^ (Fu-ling), 332. This is a 

 fungus growth upon the roots of fir trees, and is used by- 

 the Chinese both as a food and medicine. It is met with 

 in the form of large tubers, having a corrugated, blackish- 

 brown skin, and consisting internally of a hard, starchy sub- 

 stance of a white color, but sometimes tinged with pale- 

 red or brown, especially towards the outside. The tuber is 

 sometimes perforated by an irregular channel lined with 

 red membrane, marking its attachment to the root. The 

 tubers vary in size from that of a fist to that of a peck 

 measure. The smaller ones, and especially those which cling 

 to the root, are called {^ jpi^ (Fu-shen). They are met with 

 on the sites of old fir plantations, or actually connected with 

 living fir trees. The Chinese suppose these tubers to be pro- 

 duced either from the metamorphosed resin of the fir tree, or 

 from the spurious vapors of the tree. They do not easily 

 decay, and are said to be found unchanged after lying in 

 the ground for a period of thirty years. The Chinese con- 

 found them with the genuine root of the Smilax pseudo- 

 China^ and the two substances are exported to India or else- 

 where as China-root. The hardest and whitest is the best. 

 The substance probably consists largely of pectine, and is 

 free from smell or taste. A similar substance is found in 

 Japan and in America, in which latter country it is called 

 Indian-bread. In China it is ground up, mixed with rice 

 flour, and made into small square cakes, which are sold hot 

 by hawkers on the streets of most cities in the Central prov- 

 inces. Medicinally, it is considered to be peptic, nutrient, 

 diuretic, and quieting, especially in the nervous disorders of 

 children. It is prescribed in wasting diseases. The red 

 variety is specially recommended in diarrhoeas and disorders 

 of the bladder, while the skin of the tuber, 333, is considered 

 useful as a diuretic in dropsy. The smaller and younger 

 varieties, {% %^ (Fu-shen), are considered to be superior as a 

 nerve tonic and sedative to those which are older and larger. 

 The portion of the root of the fir tree which is encircled by 



