192 Sino-Iranica 



It has been my endeavor to correlate the Chinese data first of all 

 with what we know from Iranian sources, and further with classical, 

 Semitic, and Indian traditions. Unfortunately we have only fragments 

 of Iranian literature. Chapter xxvn of the Bundahisn 1 contains a 

 disquisition on plants, which is characteristic of the treatment of this 

 subject in ancient Persia. As it is not only interesting from this point 

 of view, but also contains a great deal of material to which reference 

 will be made in the investigations to follow, an extract taken from 

 E. W. West's translation 2 may be welcome. 



"These are as many genera of plants as exist: trees and shrubs, 

 fruit-trees, corn, flowers, aromatic herbs, salads, spices, grass, wild 

 plants, medicinal plants, gum plants, and all producing oil, dyes, and 

 clothing. I will mention them also a second time: all whose fruit is 

 not welcome as food of men, and are perennial, as the cypress, the 

 plane, the white poplar, the box, and others of this genus, they call 

 trees and shrubs (ddr va diraxt). The produce of everything welcome 

 as food of men, that is perennial, as the date, the myrtle, the lote-plum 

 (kiindr, a thorny tree, allied to the jujube, which bears a small plum- 

 like fruit), the grape, the quince, the apple, the citron, the pomegranate, 

 the peach, the fig, the walnut, the almond, and others in this genus, 

 they call fruit (tnivak). Whatever requires labor with the spade, and 

 is perennial, they call a shrub (diraxt). Whatever requires that they 

 take its crop through labor, and its root withers away, such as wheat, 

 barley, grain, various kinds of pulse, vetches, and others of this genus, 

 they call corn (jurddk). Every plant with fragrant leaves, which is 

 cultivated by the hand-labor of men, and is perennial, they call an 

 aromatic herb (siparam). Whatever sweet-scented blossom arises at 

 various seasons through the hand-labor of men, or has a perennial root 

 and blossoms in its season with new shoots and sweet-scented blossoms, 

 as the rose, the narcissus, the jasmine, the dog-rose (nestarun), the 

 tulip, the colocynth (kavastik), the pandanus (kedi), the camba, the 

 ox-eye (heri), the crocus, the swallow-wort (zarda), the violet, the 

 karda, and others of this genus, they call a flower (gill). Everything 

 whose sweet-scented fruit, or sweet-scented blossom, arises in its sea- 

 son, without the hand-labor of men, they call a wild plant (vahdr or 

 nihdl). Whatever is welcome as food of cattle and beasts of burden 

 they call grass (giyah). Whatever enters into cakes (pes-pdrakihd) 

 they call spices (dvzdrihd). Whatever is welcome in eating of bread, 

 as torn shoots of the coriander, water-cress (kakij), the leek, and 



1 Cf. E. W. West, Pahlavi Literature, p. 98 (in Grundriss iran. Phil., Vol. II). 



2 Pahlavi Texts, pt. I, p. 100 (Sacred Books of the East, Vol V). 



