76 ON THE CH‘ING MUH HSIANG. 
F, Nees represents those of 4. betica as much the same,* I suspect 
these closely+septate hairs are common to all the species of the genus. 
The immediate allies of the Chinese plant just described are to be 
found in ne species which inhabit the region of the Mediterranean 
basin, and the adjacent territories ; — amongst these it is, 
believe, nearest to 4. altissima, Desf., A. Pisto rect Linn., and espe 
cially 4. betica, Linn., and A. me. Sibth. Amongst 
Kast Asiatic species, there are only ms with which it is likely to be 
confounded : A. debilis, Sieb. et Zucc.—very emote! described by 
Zuccarini ;} at first placed by Duchar Se between A. rotunda, Linn., 
and 4. /onga, Linn. ; then erroneously located by Klotzsch,§ together 
: iris meIKE ; 
and of which the true position was only recently ascertained by the 
late Professor 'Miquel||—and_ A. Sinarwm, Lindl. The former is de- 
bed as hav i 
and a tela and seeds exactly like those of 4. Roxburghiana, Kl.— 
that is to say, the former angular, and with conspicuous thick ribs, 
and the latter differently shaped, and with a pale wing.§ As t to the 
second, the diagnosis given is so very brief and imperfect that even 
the section to which it belongs is quite uncertain. It may be the 
same as my species ; but the perigone-limb is described as straight, and 
the plant is said to be fetid, whereas I find the Ningpo one quite 
ight s 
widely diffused over both tg has been so univ mi 
credited with alexiteric properties as Aristolochia, and this, too, in 
all ages, and in every condition of soc asa alike by the wandering 
savage and the polished citizen or learned physician of a hi ighly civi- 
ine. U Seeaonmesla. In the forcible language of Endlicher,** ‘Species 
mprimis secernentium, neryorum et cutis vitam 
solic pgeceuer in Melvin oe dis e corpore potentiis morbificis, veneno potis- 
simum animali, ee — Serpentum morsus unanimi gentium 
tp celebran As 
of the ee basin, ‘Thvophrasta praises 4. pallida, Willd., 
as a remedy for the bites of snakes, when infused in wine and drunk, 
* Gen. Plant. Fl. Germ. Dicot, Monochlam., t. 50, fig. 26. 
- Abhandl. d. math.-phys. Kl. d. Miinch, Akad, iv. Abth. 3., 197. 
_ se. nat. Par. 4¢ sér, ii., 32, 
§ Di ecg pte d. Berlin herbar., in Monatsber d. k. Berl. Akad. d. 
Wilsoncba: 1859, 
|| Ann. Mus tae <a -Bat. ii 
| Mig Se ae Wight I hee I 
Prod. xv. sect. prior. i eat nd, or. iii., t. 771; Duchartre in DC. 
irid, oy cis Ofr. on the uses of the species ally—Rosenthal, 
ibe plant diaphor., 246-8; Bocquillon, ‘nluouel “Vhist, as oni, ii. 
a 
Naira 
: 
