The Walnut 261 



tar. 1 This apparently is a loan-word received from the Tibetan, for in 

 Sariqoli and other Pamir dialects we find the Iranian word ghdz? 

 Tarka is a genuine Tibetan word relating to the indigenous walnut, 

 wild and cultivated, of Tibetan regions. In view of this state of affairs, 

 it is certainly possible that the Chinese, in the beginning of the fourth 

 century or somewhat earlier, received walnuts and their seeds also 

 from Tibetan tribes, which resulted in the name KHan t'ao. The 

 Lepcha of Sikkim are acquainted with the walnut, for which they have 

 an indigenous term, k6l-p6t, and one of their villages is even called 

 "Walnut-Tree Foundation" (K61-bah). 3 



G. Watt 4 informs us that the walnut-tree occurs wild and cultivated 

 in the temperate Himalaya and Western Tibet, from Kashmir and 

 Nubra eastwards. W. Roxburgh 5 says about Juglans regia, "A native 

 of the mountainous countries immediately to the north and north-east 

 of Hindustan, on the plains of Bengal it grows pretty well, but is not 

 fruitful there." Another species of the same genus, J. plerococca Roxb., 

 is indigenous in the vast forests which cover the hills to the north and 

 east of the province of Silhet, the bark being employed for tanning, while 

 /. regia is enlisted among the oil-yielding products. 6 J. D. Hooker 7 

 is authority for the information that the walnut occurs wild in Sikkim, 

 and is cultivated in Bhutan, where also Captain Turner 8 found it 

 growing in abundance. Kirkpatrick 9 met it in Nepal. In Burma it 

 grows in the Ava Hills. In the Shan states east of Ava grows another 

 species of Juglans, with smaller, almost globose, quite smooth nuts, 

 but nothing is known about the tree itself. 10 



The Tibetans certainly cultivate the walnut and appreciate it 



1 R. B. Shaw, On the Ghalchah Languages {Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 1876, 

 p. 267), writes the word tor. A. Hujler (The Languages Spoken in the Western 

 Pamir, p. 36, Copenhagen, 1912) writes tar, explaining the letter a as a "dark deep a, 

 as in the French pas." 



2 W. Tomaschek (Pamirdialekte, p. 790) has expressed the opinion that WaxJ 

 tor, as he writes, is hardly related to Tibetan star-ga; this is not correct. 



8 G. Mainwaring, Dictionary of the Lepcha Language, p. 30. 



4 Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. IV, p. 550. 



8 Flora Indica, p. 670. 



6 N. G. Mukerji, Handbook of Indian Agriculture, p. 233. 



7 Himalayan Journals, p. 235; also Risley, Gazetteer of Sikkim, p. 92 (compare 

 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Vol. I, p. 445). 



8 Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, p. 273. Also Eden 

 and Pemberton (Political Missions to Bootan, p. 198, Calcutta, 1895) mention 

 the walnut in Bhutan. 



9 Account of Nepaul, p. 81. 



10 S. Kurz, Forest Flora of British Burma, Vol. II, p. 490 (Calcutta, 1877). 



