VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 423 



STELLARIA AQUATICA.— ^^ f^ (Fan-lii). This is 

 confounded with Artemisia stelleriana vesiculosa ; and it is 

 Lilso called |§ j}§ [^ (Chi-ch'ang-ts'ao), but this is Eryirichium 

 pednnculare. Another name is H §^ [^ (^-ch'ang-ts'ao). 

 This plant grows commonly in damp places and on margins of 

 ditches and cannals. It has a twining stem, containing a 

 viscid sap, which, when the stem is broken, draws out in silk- 

 like filaments. It is used as a pot-herb and is sweet and tender. 

 It has small white or yellow flowers and bears minute seeds, 

 resembling those of Sisyvibrium. The whole plant is used in 

 medicine, and is said to have a sour taste. Its action is con- 

 sidered to be solvent to the blood, increasing secretion general- 

 ly. For this reason it is used in the treatment of ulcers, hem- 

 orrhoids, insufficient secretion of milk, and scanty urination. 



STERCULIA PLATANIFOLIA.— 1§ ^ (Wu-t'ung), 

 1475. This is one of the many T'^iino- trees. It is an ornamental 

 tree and is frequently met with in the courtyards of Chinese tem- 

 ples and houses, its large leaves affording an excellent shade. 

 It may be readily recognized by its panicled flowers with colum- 

 nar stamens, and the peculiar tendency of the follicular carpels 

 to put on a leafy form, bearing the seeds on their margins. 

 The seeds are oily, and hence the tree is called after the wood- 

 oil tree, which is the Dryandra eordafa. The wood of the tree 

 is regarded as very good for coffins, and the seeds enter into the 

 composition of the moon cakes, eaten by the Chinese at the 

 Autumnal Festival of the eighth moon. There is abundance 

 of mucilage in the young branches. The leaves and liber are 

 used to make a hair-wash and a soothing lotion for carbuncular 

 and other sores. Cloth and ropes arc made from the inner 

 white bark of the tree, and this bark is used in preparing an 

 astringent lotion for hemorrhoids. The seeds are crushed and 

 the juice rubbed into gray hair, with the reputed virtue of 

 causing the gray to fall out and the new hair to come in black. 

 The same preparation is used in apthous sore mouth in children. 



STILIvINGIA SEBIFERA.— ,^ |g (Wu-chiu). This is 

 the tallow tree. The Chinese name is derived from the two 

 facts that the birds like to eat the berries and that the root of 



