INTO THE FLORA OF CHINA. 34 
(I omit the particulars given with respect to fishing, tillage, 
and obtaining of salt.) 
0 Had I not found the printed Newspapers last year take 
notice of a singular root brought from China by F. Fontaney, * 
I should not have told you that I have seen one since I came 
here, called Hu chu wu (which I take to be the same), whereto 
they ascribe wonderful properties of prolonging life and turning 
gray hairs into black, by drinking its infusion for some time, 
in so much that they say it is to be had in value from 10 
taels to 1000 or 2000 a single root, for the larger it is, the 
more is its value and efficacy: which is too much money her© 
to try the experiment. You have it mentioned in Cleyer’s 
Medicina siniea, 84, under the name of Ho xeu u. It is like¬ 
wise painted in the 27 table of those plauts Mr. Petiver has 
of me.f 
After this 0. relates a Chinese legend with respect to this 
root. A man fell down from a precipice and found himself in 
a valley from which he was not able to come out. He lived 
there for a hundred years feeding on the above-mentioned root. 
He was finally delivered by an earthquake, which destroyed 
the valley. 
* Cunningham distributed his Chinese botanical collection, 
made in Chusan, at Amoy and on the Dogs islands near Fu 
chon, among his friends in England. Pluhenet and Petiver 
seem to have received the greatest part of it. I may be 
allowed to say here a few words with respect to these ardent 
and able botanists and their works, in which they described 
and depicted Cunningham’s plants, soon after they had received 
them. 
James Petiver , Apothecary of the Charterhouse, London, and 
secretary to the Royal Society, an active collector of objects of 
natural history, born about 1658 -p 1718. He had corres¬ 
pondents in most parts of the world, who sent him productions, 
plants, animals, etc. He was a friend of the botanist Iiay and 
of Sir Hans S'loane, the celebrated promotor of science and 
President of the Royal Society (born 1660 -p 1752), who offered 
* Joannes de Fontaney, Jesuit Missionary iu China, end of the 17th cent, 
t What C. tells with respect to the plant jhj 'll* ho show wu is 
found also in Chinese works. A good drawing of it is given in the Chin. 
4 Botauy Chi wu ming shi t‘u k'ao XX. 16, a climbing plant with a large 
tuberous root, and this agrees with the engraving under the same Chinese 
name in the Japanese Botany So mo kou etc VII. 80, which according to. 
Franchet and -Savatier (Enum. pi. Japou. I 402.) is Polygonum, multi - 
fiorunu Thbg, and has in fact tuberous roQts> 
