216 Sino-Iranica 



3. Trigonella f&num graecum. In this case the compromise is a failure, 

 or the identification of kunci with kan-sun even results from an error; 

 the Sanskrit term for the spikenard is gandhamamsi. 



We must not draw inferences from mere Sanskrit names, either, as to 

 the origin of Chinese plants, unless there is more substantial evidence. 

 Thus Stuart 1 remarks under li ^ {Prunus domestica) that the Sanskrit 

 equivalent M ^ $E kii-lih-kia indicates that this plum may have been 

 introduced from India or Persia. Prunus domestica, however, is a native 

 of China, mentioned in the Si kin, Li ki, and in Mon-tse. The Sino- 

 Indian word is given in the Fan yi min yi tsi (section 24) with the trans- 

 lation li. The only corresponding Sanskrit word is kulinga, which 

 denotes a kind of gall. The question is merely of explaining a Sanskrit 

 term to the Chinese, but this has no botanical or historical value for the 

 Chinese species. 



Thus the records of the Chinese felicitously supplement the meagre 

 notices of alfalfa on the part of the ancients, and lend its history 

 the proper perspective: we recognize the why and how of the world- 

 wide propagation of this useful economic plant.' Aside from Fergana, 

 the Chinese of the Han period discovered mu-su also in Ki-pin (Kash- 

 mir), 8 and this fact is of some importance in regard to the early geo- 

 graphical distribution of the species; for in Kashmir, as well as in 

 Afghanistan and Baluchistan, it is probably spontaneous. 4 



Mu-su gardens are mentioned under the Emperor Wu (a.d. 265-290) 

 of the Tsin dynasty, and the post-horses of the T'ang dynasty were fed 

 with alfalfa. 6 



The fact that alfalfa was used as an article of human food under 

 the T'ang we note from the story of Sie Lin-<H I? & £., preceptor at 

 the Court of the Emperor Yuan Tsun (a.d. 713-755), who wrote a 

 versified complaint of the too meagre food allotted to him, in which 

 alfalfas with long stems were the chief ingredient. 6 The good teacher, 

 of course, was not familiar with the highly nutritive food-values of 

 the plant. 



1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 358. 



1 It is singular that A. de Candolle, in his Origin of Cultivated Plants, while he 

 has conscientiously reproduced from Bretschneider all his plants wrongly ascribed 

 to Can K'ien, does not make any reference to China in speaking of Medicago 

 (pp. 102-104). In fact, its history has never before been outlined correctly. 



3 TsHen Han Su, Ch. 96 A. 



* A. de Candolle, op. cit., p. 103 ; G. T. Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Vol. II, p. 455. 



6 S. Matsuda & EB /£ lK< 0° Medicago sativa and the Species of Medicago 

 in China {Botanical Magazine fl| 4$? ^ $j| fji, Tokyo, Vol. XXI, 1907, p. 243). 

 This is a very interesting and valuable study written in Japanese. 



a Cf . C. Petillon, Allusions litteraires, p. 350. 



