AND THE ZOOLOGY OF CHINA 81 



ducks, geese and sometimes hens and chickens usually feed on 

 these plants and the birds eat these greens with pleasure, 

 finding among them many small water snails, beetles and 

 larvae of different insects. 



The various kinds of duckweeds are also cultivated in 

 ponds as a nourishing food to fish. 



XXI. — On the Growth of Panic Grass in China. 



Everywhere in China among weeds is found the panic 

 grass (Panicum crus galli L.). It grows plentifully in wheat, 

 rice and millet fields in the Northern part, in Manchuria and 

 in the Southern rice districts. This plant has stalks of 

 .60-1 meter in height; the brush contains thick one-sided 

 spikes with dark-yellow, hard, brilliant seeds, cuspidated 

 from two sides, of 3-3.5 mm. in length. This grass much 

 resembles the Shan-tzu (|f| -J-) — Panicum frumentaceum 

 'Iran, et Savant, cultivated in Manchuria and in North China 

 for its edible grains and its straw for cattle. The grass is found 

 in two forms — bearded and unbearded. As it was examined 

 near Foochow the bearded Panicum crus galli L. is very often 

 seen in rice fields, growing with rice stalks. The Chinese 

 never cut the ripe rice with this weed, which is separately 

 harvested and the grains of it are employed to make a kind 

 ■of glue, used to stick paper and card-board. Firstly the 

 hulled seeds are crushed and put in water in which all the 

 hulls rise to the surface and the heavy grains sink down. 

 After this the seeds are boiled and the glutinous mass is 

 ready for use. It is interesting to note, that the panic grass 

 in Chinese medicines is mentioned and the grains of it are 

 sometimes used in times of scarcety as a substitute for other 

 cereals. They have a taste something like the seeds of 

 Panicum frumentaceum . 



XXII. — The Water Plant — Euryale Ferox in 

 North Manchuria. 



Euryale ferox Salisb (see fig. N. 1) is one of the known 

 water plants of China, which has been cultivated from remote 

 antiquity for its seeds used as food and medicine. This 

 subtropical plant is found in Japan, Formosa, near Peking, 

 Tientsin, Chefoo and in other places in China, but in Man- 

 churia Euryale was first seen at Harbin only fifteen years 

 ago. Now, as observations show, this plant is found in 

 Manchuria in all the Sungari basin and is seen in the Ussuri 

 provinces in the Eussian Far East. Euryale in Manchuria 

 is counted as a plant surviving from the Tetrian period and 

 the fact of finding in European Eussian in the Kaluski 

 6 



