Jasmine 331 



originally in Persia, and that it was thence transplanted into Kwan- 

 tun. The first-named work adds that it is now (sixteenth century) 

 cultivated in Yun-nan and Kwan-tun, but that it cannot stand cold, 

 and is unsuited to the climate of China. The Tan k'ien tsun lu ^9" §& 

 M $k of Yah Sen $§ W (1488-1559) is cited to the effect that "the name 

 nai Iff used in the north of China is identical with what is termed in the 

 Tsin Annals "H 1§F tsan nai hwa W ('hair-pin') §it ^B. 1 As regards this 

 flower, it entered China a long time ago." 



Accordingly we meet in Chinese records the following names for 

 jasmine : 2 — 



(1) ffl 5c* Hj ye-si-min, * ya-sit(si5)-mih, = Pahlavi yasmin, 

 New Persian yasamin, yasmin, yasmun, Arabic yasmin, or I? ife 3li 

 ye -si-mi, *ya-sit-mit (in Yu yan tsa tsu) = Middle Persian *yasmir (?). 3 

 Judging from this philological evidence, the statement of the Yu yan 

 tsa tsu, and Li Si-cen's opinion that the original habitat of the plant was 

 in Persia, it seems preferable to think that it was really introduced from 

 that country into China. The data of the Nan fan ts'ao mu twan are 

 open to grave suspicion; but he who is ready to accept them is com- 

 pelled to argue, that, on the one hand, the Persian term was extant in 

 western Asia at least in the third century a.d., and that, on the other 

 hand, the Indian word mallika (see No. 2) had reached Ta Ts'in about 

 the same time. Either suggestion would be possible, but is not con- 

 firmed by any West-Asiatic sources. 4 The evidence presented by the 

 Chinese work is isolated; and its authority is not weighty enough, the 

 relation of the modern text to the original issue of about a.d. 300 is 

 too obscure, to derive from it such a far-reaching conclusion. The 

 Persian- Arabic word has become the property of the entire world: all 

 European languages have adopted it, and the Arabs diffused it along 

 the east coast of Africa (Swahill yasmini, Madagasy dzasimini). 



(2) ~M f 'J or ^ ffi mo-li, b *mwat(mwal)-li=wa//t, transcription of 



1 This is the night-blooming jasmine (Nyctanthes arbor tristis), the musk-flower 

 of India (Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 287). 



2 There are numerous varieties of Jasminum, — about 49 to 70 in India, about 

 39 in the Archipelago, and about 15 in China and Japan. 



s From the Persian loan-word in Armenian, yasmik, Hubschmann (Armen. 

 Gram., p. 198) justly infers a Pahlavi *yasmlk, beside yasmin. Thus also *yasmlt 

 or *yasmlr may have existed in Pahlavi. 



4 It is noteworthy also that neither Dioscorides nor Galenus was acquainted 

 with jasmine. 



5 For the expression of the element It are used various other characters which 

 may be seen in the Kwan k'tin fan p'u (Ch. 22, p. 8 b); they are of no importance 

 for the phonetic side of the case. 



