Indigo 371 



places, a dye-stuff of similar virtues is made from tien j$ (the indigenous 

 Polygonum tinctorium)." 1 Li Si-£en holds the opinion that the Persian 

 tsHn tat was the foreign lan-tien Ml SS! (Indigo/era tinctoria). It must not 

 be forgotten that the genus Indigojera comprises some three hundred 

 species, and that it is therefore impossible to hope for exact identifica- 

 tions in Oriental records. Says G. Watt 2 on this point, "Species of 

 Indigojera are distributed throughout the tropical regions of the globe 

 (both in the Old and New Worlds) with Africa as their headquarters. 

 And in addition to the Indigoferas several widely different plants yield 

 the self-same substance chemically. Hence, for many ages, the dye 

 prepared from these has borne a synonymous name in most tongues, 

 and to such an extent has this been the case that it is impossible to say 

 for certain whether the nila of the classic authors of India denoted the 

 self-same plant which yields the dye of that name in modern com- 

 merce." "Indigo," therefore, is a generalized commercial label for a 

 blue dye-stuff, but without botanical value. Thus also Chinese indigo 

 is yielded by distinct plants in different parts of China. 3 



It is singular that the Chinese at one time imported indigo from 

 Persia, where it was doubtless derived from India, and do not refer 

 to India as the principal indigo-producing country. An interesting 

 article on the term tsHn iai has been written by Hirth. 4 



1 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 16, p. 25 b. 



2 Commercial Products of India, p. 663. 



* Bretschneioer, Bot. Sin., pt. II, p. 212. 

 4 Chinesische Studien, pp. 243-258. 



