228 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



186062, Chinese vermilion is an article of regular importation into 

 London, where the finer qualities realize from 3s. 3d. to 3s. Qd. 

 per Ib. 



Nitrate of W 7\ 3JZ Hwang-shing-yti ; Nitrate of Mercury with 



' ury ' some Peroxide. A pale buff powder, wholly volatile. 



FRUITS AND SEEDS. 



Fruits and ^^ $$1 Hwa-tseaou ; Fruits of Zantlioocylum (Rutacece, tribe 



Seeds. Zanthoxylece) ; Hoa-tsiao, Guibourt, Hist, des Drog., t. iij:, p. 514. 



Japanese Pepper, Stenhouse, Phil. Mag., 4th series, vol. vii. 



(1854), p. 23 ; Pharm Journ, and Trans., vol. xvii., p. 19 ; Pun- 



tsaou, fig. 685. 



Hwa-tseaou is a name applied to the fruits of two species of 

 Zanihoxylum, namely, Z. piperitum, D.C., and Z. alatum, Roxb. 1 

 The first is a native of Japan, in which country its fruits are 

 used as a condiment ; the second is indigenous to India and 

 China, and, as proved by specimens obtained by my brother, 

 Thomas Hanbury, of Shanghai, is the source of the Hwa-tseaou 

 of the Chinese shops. 



Zanthoxylum alatum, first noticed by Capt. Hardwicke, in 

 1796, 2 is a small tree occurring in various parts of Northern India, 

 as in Oude, Eohil^nnd, K \imaon, .Nepaul, Sikkim, Bhotan, 

 and Khasia, and extending far eastward into China. As may 

 be expected from so extensive a range, it varies considerably, 

 especially as to the size of its leaves and number of its leaflets 

 and the number and size of its spines ; but the transition from 

 one form to another is so gradual that no botanist who should 

 examine a large series of specimens could doubt their belonging 

 to a single type. 



The fruits (Fig. 1), as found in the Chinese shops, consist of 

 the carpels usually dehiscing and empty, but sometimes inclos- 

 ing the round, black, shining seed. In perfect specimens we 



1 I retain Roxburgh's name for this plant, because I am certain of its 

 identity. Steudel supersedes it by that of Z. acanthopodium, D.C.; but 

 this latter is not identical, at least according to M. Alphonse de Candolle, 

 who, at my request, has kindly compared it with specimens of Z. alatum, 

 Roxb., from China. 



2 Asiatick Researches, vol. vi., p. 376. 



Zanthoxylum 

 alatum. 



