about to decay it must be burned by a red 
hot iron nail; then it will thrive again. The 
Pen-tshio identifies the Feng-wei-tsiao with 
the .Date-palm (v. s.) But the author of the 
Ch. W. believes, that Li-shi-chen is wrong. 
The drawing in the Ch. W. represents a 
Palm-tree with pinnate leaves. 
il m SI Tie-shu-kuo (Fruit of iron 
tree.) Ch. IV. XXXVI 43. This tree 
grows in y[|f p|| Tien-nan (Yiin nan pro- 
vince.) On the top of the tree there grows 
a bundle of leaves, crowded together, which 
are 7-8 inches in length and resemble in 
shape ' a spoon with its handle. From the 
borders of these spoonlike leaves the fruits 
proceed. They are roundish, flattened, with 
a depression in the middle. These fruits 
are inedible. Within there is a kernel. The 
natives of Yiin-nan call them “Phoenix’ 
eggs.” The tree bears fruits only once in 
every 12 years. It is cultivated in gardens, 
only as a curiosity, but it is not classed 
among the fruit trees. The drawing of the 
T‘ie-shu-kuo in the Ch. W. represents very 
well the pinnately cleft fruit-bearing leaves, 
with the nut like fruits at their margins, so 
characteristic of the genus Cyeas, — What 
the Chinese tell regarding the revocation 
of the Feng-wei-tsiao by iron is practised 
by the Hindus on the Cycas eircinalis. Biisch- 
ing (Erdbeschreibung, Asien V. 4 p. 779) 
states : 
‘'Merkwiirdig ist, dass Cycas eircinalis 
eine grosse Sympatbie zum Eisen hat, indem 
der Baum sogar, wenn er absterben will, durch 
einen eingesclflagenen eisernen Keil wieder 
neues Leben erhalten soil.” — I. Bontius (His- 
tor. natural Indiae orient. 1631) tells (p. 85) : 
“In Japonia arbor Palmae figura crescit, 
quae si a pluviis permaduerit, tanquam peste 
correpta statim exarescit, quam mox cum 
radicibus avulsam in locum apricum siccan- 
dam exponunt indigenae, et turn in eandem 
scrobem injeota prius arena fervida, ant 
scoria ferri, replantant, et si qui rami ex- 
siccati, vel avulsi sint vel decidere, eos clavis 
ferreis trunco affigunt, et sic pristino 
virori restituitur.” This quotation points 
probably to Cycas revoluta, a Japanese 
species. This tree, much cultivated in China 
as an ornamental plant bears at Pexing the 
popular name THe-shu * ( iron 
* The 
Tie-shu of Chinese books 
relates not to a palm, but probably to a species 
of Dracaena. The description given of it in 
the Ch. W. XXX 31, is the following: 
The T'ie-shu is a little tree, several feet 
high with an undivided trunk without lateral 
branches and closely packed joints like a 
palm. The leaves, which are aggregated at 
tree ). — As regards Cycas eircinalis, Dr. 
Hance states (Notes and Queries III p. 95) 
that there does not seem any evidence of its 
occurrence on the mainland of China, but it 
grows wild in Formosa. 
° 't/it 
These are palms and palm like trees, the 
description of which I have been able to 
find out in Chinese botanical works. But in 
the Chinese works are left out, I think, some 
representatives of the Palm order in China. 
Some European writers mention several spe- 
cies of Calamus (Rattans) as growing in 
Southern China. Grosier (la Chine II 360) 
states; “Le rotang, que les Chinois appelent 
ten, emit dans toutes les eontrees meridiona- 
les de l’Bmpire ; la province de Kouan-ton 
en fournit une immense quantite, et il 
abonde surtout dans les environs de Soui- 
tcheou-fou , oil les montagnes en sont couver- 
tes. On en distingue plusieurs especes, 
dont une se fait surtout remarquer par la 
prodigieuse longueur de ses tiges ( Calamus 
rndenium. Lour.) L’espece la plus commune 
a la Chine, et qu’on emploie a un plus grand 
nombre d’usages, est celle qui ne pousse 
qu’une scute tige ( Calamus verm. Lour.) 
Le rotang est tres souple et ne*se rompt 
que tres difficilement ; aussi en tire-t-on le 
parti le plus utile. II fournit a la marine 
Chinoise des cables et des cordages. On le 
divise en brins longs et delies, dont oil 
faqonne des corbeilles, des paniers et sur- 
tout des uattes, sur les quelles les Chinois 
couchent en ete.” 
the summit, are of a purple colour, resembling 
Pa-tsiao (Banana.) 
also called 
(red Banana.) The name Tfie-shu refers to 
the reddish iron colour of the whole tree. The 
blossoms resemble those of the ;jt|: Kui (Cin- 
namomum Cassia.) In Bridgman’s Chrestom- 
athv p. 453 the T‘ie-shu is identified with 
Dracaena ferrea. In Gr osier’s “ la Chine,” 
III 98, Dracaena ferrea is described as follows: 
“ Cet arbrisseau s’dleve a huit pied de haut. 
Sa tige, d’un pouce de diametre est simple, k 
noends rapproehes, produits par la chute des 
feuilles. II parait appartenir a la famille des 
palmiers. 
Lamarck (Botanique II® p. 324) says re- 
garding Dracaena terminalis : “Cette plante 
s’eleve a la hauteur de huit a dix pieds, sur 
une tige arboree, fenillee a son sommet, et 
est souvent remarquable par la couleur pour- 
pree que prennent toutes ses parties. Ses 
feuilles sont grandes, petiolees lanceol£es, 
striees par des nervures laterales, obliques 
comme dans celles des Balisiers ( Ganna ). 
Cette plante croit a la Chine, Burnet states; 
“Dracaena terminalis is planted as a landmark 
in China as well as India.” 
the pS 
the tree is 
Therefore 
Chu-tsiao 
