CRYPTOTÆNIA CANADENSIS.—當歸 (Tang-kuei), 1250. Faber identifies this umbelliferous plant as the ordinary honeywort of North America. Hanbury identifies it erroneously with Aralia edulis, and Tatarinov as Levisticum. The Japanese make it to be Ligusticum or Angelica. The root of this plant represents the drug, which is held in very high repute among the Chinese. It ranks next to licorice in frequency of use in prescriptions. It comes principally from the three western provinces, but is also prepared in Shansi, Shantung, and Chihli. It is met with in the form of brown, fleshy root-stocks, branching and dividing into a mass of large, close, pliant rootlets, something like gentian root. The interior is soft, sometimes mealy, and of a whitish or yellow color, or sometimes much darker. The odor is very strong, resembling that of celery, and the taste is sweetish, warm, and aromatic. Names by which it is also called are 山蘄 (Shan-ch‘in) and 白蘄 (Pai-ch‘in), which mean “mountain” or “white celery,” and it is compared to Apium graveolens, and, indeed, is said by Siebold to be eaten like celery in Japan, though we do not find that it is so used in China. The drug is much used by medical men in China in the treatment of the menstrual, chlorotic, and puerperal diseases of women. It is used in hemorrhages of all kinds, colds, fluxes, dyspeptic complaints, ague, and a large number of other difficulties. […] According to Henry, Angelica polymorpha is the source of the drug Tang-kuei exported from Ichang and Hankow.
One sentence omitted: it demeans the people it describes.