Page:Pekinese Rhymes (G. Vitale, 1896).djvu/227

 紅得哩 指甲草兒 藍得哩 翠雀兒

七根鬚兒 六個瓣兒 晚香玉得哩 藹康尖兒

Pekinese boys sing these words to imitate the street-call of the flower sellers. The two sounds which I have written 得 哩 to-li, and occur three times in these verses are altogether phonetic and with no meaning tone or accent； so the first verse is pronounced as if it were written hung toli. 指 甲草兒 chih3 chia3 ts'ao3' r ( pronounce chih2 chia3) lit. finger grass, is the China balsam (Impatiens balsamina) with whose red flowers Chinese ladies dye their fingers, as the Arab women with the hennè. The flowers of this plant may have different shades of colour from plain white to deep red, and are also called 鳳 仙 花 feng4 hsien1 hua1. 翠赛: 兒 ts'uei4 ch'iao3' r, the larkspur. 花鬚兒 hua1 hsü1' r， stamens and style of flowers. 矮 康 ai1 k'ang1, an aromatic plant, basilic (Odmuni basilicum).

Here is the red！一 China balsam ― here is the blue！ 一 the larkspur 一 with seven