VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 405 



as a sort of poultice in the sore heads of children and in 

 venereal sores in women. The white seeds are eaten by 

 nursing mothers to prevent colds and convulsions in their 

 infants. The oil, very naturally, has similar properties 

 and is used as a bland emollient internally in diarrhoeas 

 and externally in all sorts of sores. Its ingestion is also 

 thought to facilitate labor. The dregs of oil from an old 

 lanip are considered to be specially efficacious. The oil-cake, 

 Hi ^li fl (Ma-k'u-ping), is used to fatten fish and to enrich the 

 fields. It is also used as food for human consumption, and is 

 employed to clean the teeth and blacken the hair. The Cli'^ing- 

 jang^ which is the foliage of the plant, is also considered very 

 beneficial when eaten, having qualities not much inferior to 

 those of the seeds. A strong decoction is recommended in 

 dysmenorrhoea. The flowers are thought to make the hair 

 grow after favus, and to promote the growth of the eyebrows. 

 They are emollient to the intestines, and are used as an 

 application to warts and other excrescences of the skin. The 

 stalks are incinerated, and the ash used on hemorrhoids and 

 in purulent otorrhoea. 



SESELI LIBANOTIS.— 5fI5 % (Hsieh-hao). This is an 

 umbelliferous plant having a general resemblance to Artemisia 

 apiacea^ but it does not have the offensive odor of the latter. 

 The leaves and root are both edible. It is carminative and 

 corrective, and is recommended in flatulence and indigestion, 

 A decoction is used to wash foul sores. 



SETARIA ITALICA.— ^^^ (Liang). This is the common 

 spiked millet^ which is so extensively grown for food in the 

 north of China, where the popular name of the plant is ^ -^ 

 (Ku-tzu), and of the hulled grain is \\\ % (Hsiao-mi). The 

 character designating this grain is explained by ]g (Liang), 

 "excellent grain." Another explanation is that it originally 

 came from "^ ]\\ (Liang-chou), formerly including parts of Sze- 

 chuan, Hupeh, and Honan. The character |j| (Su) is sometimes 

 applied to this form of millet, but belongs rather to another 

 variety. Three varieties of grain are distinguished: ^ ^ TJt 

 (Huang-liang-mi), yellow, j^ Mc: 5i^ (Pai-liang-mi), white, and 



