248 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



1860-62. Daphnidium Culeba is cultivated in Cochin-China, and 

 probably in Southern China also. Loureiro omits to give its 

 Chinese name. 



Legumes of 

 Prosopis 



Large round 

 China Carda- 

 mom. 



x^ V3 Ya-tsaou ; Legumes of Prosopis ? (Leguminosce) ; 

 Ya Cab, Cleyer, Med. Simp., No. 223. 



These are the pods of some leguminous tree at present unde- 

 termined, but which, judging from analogy, is probably not far 

 distant from the genus Prosopis. They are from two to four 

 inches long, and from T 3 ^ to T 5 F of an inch broad, more or less 

 sickle-shaped and compressed, their upper edge prolonged into a 

 narrow wing. The anterior extremity is pointed, the posterior 

 attenuated into a sort of stalk. * The pods are indehiscent, and 

 have thick pulpy valves, which are externally smooth and of 

 a deep brown. The substance of the pod, when chewed, even in 

 very small quantity, produces an extremely disagreeable sense of 

 acridity in the fauces. Its properties are thus quaintly described 

 by Cleyer : " Intrat hepar et stomachum. Catarrhos solvit. 

 Aperitivum est meatuum. Tumores complanat." The drug is 

 said to be produced in the province of Szcehuen." 



Jp[ 7 Tsaou-Jcow ; Large Bound China Cardamom, Pharm. 

 Journ., xiv., 353, Fig. 1, 2. 



Although this species of cardamom, as well as those that 

 follow, have already been described and figured in the Pharma- 

 ceutical Journal, 1 it will probably add to the value of this paper 

 if I briefly recapitulate the characters by which they are distin- 

 guished, and the chief points of interest attaching to them. 



The Large Round China Cardamom varies considerably in 

 size, my specimens being from IjV inch to iV of an inch in 

 length. The capsules are somewhat oval or globular, pointed at 

 either extremity, obscurely three-sided (except at the base, where 

 the triangular character is strongly marked) ; they are sometimes 

 attached to a long pedicel. The pericarp closely invests the 

 mass of seeds ; it is brown and strongly marked by interrupted 

 longitudinal ridges; it is hardly aromatic. The seeds are 



1 " On some Rare Kinds of Cardamom." Pharm. Journ., xiv., 352 ; also, 

 Journ. de Pharmacie et de Chimie, Mai et Juin, 1855; Bonplandia, 1 Juni,1855. 



