Note 14 — Chapter XI · Tree-, Herb-, and Stone-lore

The pine may have been “a kind of mugwort” (and apparently, like the cypress, a “kind of mandrake”), but it did not displace the mugwort as a medicinal plant. Dr. Rendel Harris quotes a letter from Professor Giles, the distinguished Chinese scholar, who says: “There is quite a literature about Artemisia vulgaris, L. (the mugwort), which has been used in China from time immemorial for cauterizing as a counter-irritant, especially in cases of gout. Other species of Artemisia are also found in China.”14