346 Sino-Iranica 



bling those of an Indigofera (Ian) ; and in the same work 1 this plant is 

 referred to QarS-Khoja iK 'M under the name yan ts'e. Also the Ming 

 Annals 2 contain the same reference. The plant in question has been 

 identified by D. Hanbury with the camel-thorn (Alhagi camelorum) , 

 a small spiny plant of the family Leguminosae, growing in Iran and 

 Turkistan. 3 



In the fourteenth century, Odoric of Pordenone found near the 

 city Huz in Persia manna of better quality and in greater abundance 

 than in any part of the world. 4 The Persian-Arabic manna was made 

 known in Europe during the sixteenth century by the traveller and 

 naturalist Pierre Belon du Mons (i 5 18-64) > 5 who has this account: 

 "Les Caloieres auoy6t de la Mane liquide recueillie en leurs montagnes, 

 qu'ils appellent Tereniabin, a la difference de la dure: Car ce que les 

 autheurs Arabes ont appelle" Tereniabin, est gard£e en pots de terre 

 comme miel, et la portent vendre au Caire: qui est ce qu' Hippocrates 

 nomma miel de Cedre, et les autres Grecs ont nomme* Ros6e du mont 

 Liban: qui est differente a la Manne blanche seiche. Celle que nous 

 auons en France, apport^e de Brianson, recueillie dessus les Meleses a 

 la sommjte' des plus hautes montagnes, est dure, differente a la susdicte. 

 Parquoy estant la Manne de deux sortes, Ion en trouve au Caire de 

 l'vne et de l'autre es boutiques des marchands, expose*e en vente. 

 L'vne est appellee Manne, et est dure: l'autre Tereniabin, et est liquide: 

 et pource qu'en auons fait plus long discours au liure des arbres tousiours 

 verds, n'en dirons autre chose en ce lieu." The Briancon manna men- 

 tioned by Belon is collected from the larch-trees (Pinus larix) of south- 

 ern France. 6 Garcia da Orta 7 described several kinds of manna, one 

 brought to Ormuz from the country of the Uzbeg under the name 

 xir quest or xircast, "which means the milk of a tree called quest, for xir 

 [read Ur] is milk in the Persian language, so that it is the dew that falls 



1 Ch. 24, p. 6, of the original edition; and Ch. 24, p. 30 b, of the edition of 1744. 



3 Ch. 329 (cf. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. II, p. 192). 



3 The plant is said to occur also in India (Sanskrit vigaladd and gandharl; that 

 is, from Gandhara), Arabia, and Egypt, but, curiously, in those countries does not 

 produce a sugar-like secretion. Consequently it cannot be claimed as the plant 

 which furnished the manna to the Israelites in the desert (see the Dictionnaire de 

 la Bible by F. Vigouroux, Vol. I, col. 367). The manna of northern India became 

 known to the Chinese in recent times (see Lu fan kun Si 'k't fOi J|; ^ j£ $jC, p. 44, 

 in TsHn lao fan ts'un Su). 



1 Yule, Cathay, new ed., Vol. II, p. 109; Cordier's edition of Odoric, p. 59. 



6 Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez, pp. 228-229 (Anvers, 1555). 



6 Fluckiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia, p. 416. 



7 C. Markham, Colloquies, p. 280. 



