340 CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



chijtg is prepared for food by steaming and drying. In this 

 condition it may be used as a substitute for grains, and is 

 called ^ If' (Mi-pn). The root is the part used medicinally, 

 and is met with in the sliops in flat pieces, from one to two and 

 a quarter inches long, having a greenish-yellow color, with a 

 varying degree of translucency and flexibility. The outer 

 surface is marked with small circular cicatrices, tubercles, or 

 transverse lines. The inner surface is paler, and shows signs 

 of having been attached to the stalk. The taste is sweetish 

 and mucilaginous. The drug is regarded as chiefly tonic and 

 constructive in its properties ; but it is also regarded as 

 demulcent, arthritic, lenitive, and prophylactic. It is also 

 administered in confirmed leprosy. 



POLYGON ATUM OFFICINALE.—^ % (Wei-jui), 3g 

 f^ (Yii-chu), 1547. The first character is also written ^. The 

 leaves resemble bamboo leaves; hence the second name (jade 

 bamboo). The leaves and root are edible. It is a common 

 plant in the mountains of northern China. The drug as found 

 in the shops consists of pale yellow or brown, brittle, semi- 

 translucent, twisted pieces, pretty evenly jointed, and varying 

 a good deal in size, length, and hygrometric state. The taste 

 is sweet and mucilaginous, and the odor something like that 

 of newly baked bread. It is very liable to become mouldy. 

 When macerated in water the roots swell up again to their 

 original dimensions, and are three or four times as thick as in 

 the dry state. Cooling, demulcent, sedative, tonic, antiperiod- 

 ic, and arthritic qualities are attributed to the rhizome, and 

 it is prescribed as a wash in ophthalmia, to be taken with 

 peppermint, ginger, and honey in muscse volitantes, in other 

 combinations for gravel, the fevers of influenza and caked 

 breast, and in the anaemias of epileptic children. 



POLYGONUM AMPHIBIUM.— 5^^ (T'ien-liao). This 

 is given in the Pentsao in a note to the article on Polygonum 

 orientale, and the plant is not clearly distinguished from this 

 latter. The root and stalk are bruised, and the juice taken 

 and employed in the treatment of foul sores and rheumat- 

 ism. 



