402 Sino-Iranica 



kit." 1 These are vague and puerile anecdotes, without chronological 

 specification. There is no country Kwa, which is merely distilled from 

 the character jK&, and no such tradition appears in any historical text. 2 

 The term wo-kii was well known under the T'ang, being mentioned in 

 the Pen ts'ao H i of C'en Ts'an-k'i, who distinguishes a white and a 

 purple variety, but is silent as to the point of introduction. 3 This 

 author, however, as can be shown by numerous instances, had a keen 

 sense of foreign plants and products, and never failed to indicate them 

 as such. There is no evidence for the supposition that Lactuca was 

 introduced into China from abroad. All there is to it amounts to this, 

 that, as shown by the above passage of the T'an hui yao, possibly supe- 

 rior varieties of the West were introduced. 



In Persia, Lactuca sativa (Persian kdhu) occurs both wild and culti- 

 vated. 4 Cichoreum is kasnl in Persian, hindubd in Arabic and Osmanli. 5 



39. The hu k'in, mentioned in the above text of the T'an hui yao, 

 possibly represents the garden celery, Apium graveolens (Persian kerefs 

 or karqfs) (or possibly parsley, Apium petroselinum) of the west. 6 It 

 appears to be a different plant from the hu k'in mentioned above (p. 196). 



Hu k'in is likewise mentioned among the best vegetables of the 

 country ^c ^ Mo-lu, *Mwat-luk, Mar-luk, in Arabia. 7 



In order to conclude the series of vegetables enumerated in the 

 text of the T'an hui yao, the following may be added here. 



In a.d. 647 the king of Gandhara (in north-western India) sent to 

 the Chinese Court a vegetable styled ju-t'u ^ i ££ (" Buddha-land 

 vegetable"), each stem possessing five leaves, with red flowers, a yellow 

 pith, and purple stamens. 8 



1 I have looked up the text of the Ts'in i lu, which is reprinted in the T'an Sun 

 ts'un $u and Si yin hiian ts'un $u. The passage in question is in Ch. 2, p. 7 b, and 

 printed in the same manner as in the Pen ts'ao ban tnu, save that the country is called 

 Kao ]lb, not Kwa fSf. It is easy to see that these two characters could be con- 

 founded, and that only one of the two can be correct; but Kao does not help us any 

 more than Kwa. Either name is fictitious as that of a country. 



2 We have had several other examples of alleged names of countries being 

 distilled out of botanical names. 



s K'ou Tsuh-§i is likewise; see his Pen ts'ao yen i (Ch. 19, p. 2). 

 * Schlimmer, Terminologie, p. 337. 



5 See Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 146; E. Seidel, Mechithar, p. 134; Leclerc, 

 TraitS des simples, Vol. II, p. 28. 



6 Cf. Achundow, Abu Mansur, pp. no, 257. Celery is cultivated only in a few 

 gardens of Teheran, but it grows spontaneously and abundantly in the mountains 

 of the Bakhtiaris (Schlimmer, Terminologie, p. 43). 



7 T'ai p'in hwan yii ki, Ch. 186, p. 16 b. 



8 T'an hui yao, Ch. 200, p. 4 b; and T'an $u, Ch. 221 B, p. 7. The name of 

 Gandhara is abbreviated into *d'ar, but in the corresponding passage of the T'an 

 hui yao (Ch. 100, p. 3 b) and in the Ts'e fu yuan kwei (Ch. 970, p. 12) the name is 

 written completely ||| ^ Kien-ta, *G'an-d'ar. 



