200 Sino-Iranica 



attribute Hu, it may be of foreign origin, its foreign name being H>J ffl> 

 % W ko-hu-lu-tse (*kat-wu-lou-dzak). Unfortunately it is not indicated 

 at what time this transcription was adopted, nor does Li Si-cen state 

 the source from which he derived it. The only T'ang author who 

 mentions the plant, Su Kun, does not give this foreign name. At all 

 events, it does not convey the impression of representing a T'ang 

 transcription; on the contrary, it bears the ear-marks of a transcription 

 made under the Yuan. Su Kun observes, "Hu hwan-lien is produced 

 in the country Po-se and grows on dry land near the sea-shore. Its 

 sprouts are like those of the hia-ku ts'ao Jt $T ^ (Brunella vulgaris). 

 The root resembles a bird's bill; and the cross-section, the eyes of the 

 mainah. The best is gathered in the first decade of the eighth month." 

 Su Sun of the Sung period remarks that the plant now occurs in Nan-hai 

 (Kwah-tun), as well as in Ts'in-lun §HPti (Sen-si and Kan-su). This 

 seems to be all the information on record. 1 It is not known to me that 

 Barkhausia grows in Persia; at least, Schlimmer, in his extensive dic- 

 tionary of Persian plants, does not note it. 



$ou-ti M. ■(£ is mentioned by C'en Ts'an-k'i as a plant (not yet 

 identified) with seeds of sweet and warm flavor and not poisonous, and 

 growing in Si-fan (Western Barbarians or Tibet) and in northern China 

 At zh, resembling hwai Man ^ ^r {Pimpinella anisum). The Hu make 

 the seeds into a soup and eat them. 2 In this case the term Hu may be 

 equated with Si-fan, but among the Chinese naturalists the latter term 

 is somewhat loosely used, and does not necessarily designate Tibet. 3 



Hiun-k'iun *§f || (Conioselinum univittatum) is an umbelliferous 

 plant, which is a native of China. As early as the third century a.d. 

 it is stated in the Wu H pen ts'ao 4 that some varieties of this plant grow 

 among the Hu; and Li Si-cen annotates that the varieties from the Hu 

 and Zun are excellent, and are hence styled hu k'iuh tft |f. 5 It is stated 

 that this genus is found in mountain districts in Central Europe, 

 Siberia, and north-western America. 6 N 



1 What Stuart (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 65) says regarding this plant is 

 very inexact. He arbitrarily identifies the term Hu with the Kukunor, and wrongly 

 ascribes Su Kuh's statement to T'ao Huh-kih. Such an assertion as, "the drug is 

 now said to be produced in Nan-hai, and also in Sen-si and Kan-su," is misleading, 

 as this "now" comes from an author of the Sung period, and does not necessarily 

 hold good for the present time. 



2 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 26, p. 22 b. 



3 Cf . below, p. 344. 



4 Cf . Beginnings of Porcelain, p. 115. 



5 He also imparts a Sanskrit name from the Suvarnaprabhasa-sutra in the form 

 f§ Jt£ 7& Se-mo-k'ie, *ja-mak-gia. The genus is not contained in Watt's Dictionary. 



6 Treasury of Botany, Vol. I, p. 322. 



