Introduction 



i9S 



Iranian extraction. 1 Bretschn eider 2 annotated, "If the character 

 hu occurs in the name of a plant, it can be assumed that the plant is 

 of foreign origin and especially from western Asia, for by Hu len the 

 ancient Chinese denoted the peoples of western Asia." This is but 

 partially correct. The attribute hu is by no means a safe criterion in 

 stamping a plant as foreign, neither does hu in the names of plants 

 which really are of foreign origin apply to West-Asiatic or Iranian 

 plants exclusively. 



i. The word hu appears in a number of names of indigenous and 

 partially wild plants without any apparent connection with the tribal 

 designation Hu or without allusion to their provenience from the Hu. 

 In the Li Sao, the famous elegies by K'u Yuan of the fourth century 

 B.C., a plant is mentioned under the name hu Sen. #1 $81 , said to be a 

 fragrant grass from which long cords were made. This plant is not 

 identified. 3 



2. The acid variety of yu fib (Citrus grandis) is styled hu kan 

 #J "HY apparently an ironical nickname, which may mean "sweet like 

 the Hu." The tree itself is a native of China. 



3. The term hu hien ffl fL occurs only in the T'u kin pen ts'ao of 

 Su Sun of the eleventh century as a variety of hien (Amarantus) , which 

 is indigenous to China. It is not stated that this variety came from 

 abroad, nor is it known what it really was. 



4. Hu mien man #J M ^ is a variety of Rehmannia, 5 a native 

 of China and Japan. The name possibly means "the man with the face 

 of a Hu." 6 C'en Ts'ah-k'i of the T'ang says in regard to this plant that 

 it grows in Lih-nan (Kwah-tuh), and is like ti hwan #& iic (Rehmannia 

 glutinosa). 



5. The pla^it known as ku-sui-pu H* #$ $f (Poly podium fortunei) 

 is indigenous to China, and, according to C'en Ts'an-k'i, was called 



1 "Le terme est bien en principe, vers Tan 800, une designation des Iraniens et 

 en particulier des Sogdiens " (Chavannes and Pelliot, Traite manichden, p. 231). 

 This in general is certainly true, but we have well authenticated instances, traceable 

 to the fourth century at least, of specifically Iranian plants the names of which are 

 combined with the element Hu, that can but apply to Iranians. 



1 Chinese Recorder, 1 871, p. 22 1. 



8 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. II, No. 420; and Li sao Is'ao tnu su (Ch. 2, 

 p. 16 b, ed. of Ci pu tsu £ai ts'un su) by Wu Zen-kie ^| £l §J! of the Sung period. 

 See also T'ai pHn yii Ian, Ch. 994, p. 6 b. 



4 Bretschneider, op. cit., No. 236; W. T. Swingle in Plantas Wilsoniana?, 

 Vol. 11, p. 130. 



* Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 372. 



6 Cf. analogous plant-names like our Jews-mallow, Jews-thorn, Jews-ear, Jews- 

 apple. 



