The Olive 417 



following definition of ulusun in Chinese: "TsH-Vun is a foreign fruit, 

 which is produced in the country Po-se (Persia). The bark of the tree 

 is green, the flowers are white and aromatic. Its fruit ripens in the fifth 

 month and yields an oil good for frying cakes." This is apparently based 

 on the notice of the Yu yah tsa tsu. The Manchu word ulusun (sun 

 being a Manchu ending) seems to be an artificial formation based on 

 Latin oleum (from Greek elaion), which was probably conveyed through 

 the Jesuit missionaries. 



The olive remained unknown to the Japanese; their modern bo- 

 tanical science calls it oreiju M W ^ , which reproduces our "olive." 1 

 The Japanese botanists, without being aware of the meaning of tsH-tun, 

 avail themselves of the characters for this word (reading them ego-no-ki) 

 for the designation of Styrax japonica. 2 



The so-called Chinese olive, kan-lan ffli $f, has no affinity with the 

 true olive of the West-Asiatic and Mediterranean zone, although its 

 appearance comes very near to this fruit. 3 The name kan-lan applies 

 to Canarium album and C. pimela, belonging to the order Burseraceae, 

 while the olive ranks in that of the Oleaceae* Ma Ci, who, in his K'ai 



1 Matsumura, No. 2136. 



2 Ibid., No. 3051. 



* The kan-lan tree itself is suspected to be of foreign origin; it was most probably 

 introduced from Indo-China into southern China. Following are briefly the reasons 

 which prompt me to this opinion. 1. According to Li Si-cen, the meaning of the 

 name kan-lan remains unexplained, and this comment usually hints at a foreign word. 

 The ancient pronunciation was *kam-lam or *kam-ram, which we still find in 

 Annamese as kam-lan. The tree abounds in Annam, the fruit being eatable and 

 preserved in the same manner as olives (Perrot and Hurrier, Mat. m6d. et phar- 

 macop^e sino-annamites, p. 141). Moreover, we meet in Pa-yi, a T'ai language 

 spoken in Yun-nan, a word (mak)-k'am, which in a Pa-yi-Chinese glossary is rendered 

 by Chinese kan-lan (the element mak means "fruit"; see F. W. K. Miller, T'oung 

 Pao, Vol. Ill, p. 27). The relationship of Annamese to the T'ai languages has been 

 clearly demonstrated by H. Maspero, and it seems to me that Chinese *kam-lam 

 is borrowed from Annam-T'ai. There are many more such Chinese botanical names, 

 as I hope to show in the near future. . 2. The plant appears in Chinese records 

 at a comparatively recent date. It is first described in the Nan cou i wu li of the 

 third century as a plant of Kwah-tuh and Fu-kien and in the Nan fan ts'ao mu Iwan 

 (Ch. c, p. 3 b). It is mentioned as a tree of the south in the Kin lou tse of the Em- 

 peror Yuan of the Liang in the sixth century (see above, p. 222). A description of 

 it is due to Liu Sun in his Lin piao lu i (Ch. B, p. 5 b). In the materia medica it 

 first appears in the K'ai pao pen ts'ao of the end of the tenth century. 3. The tree 

 remained always restricted to the south-eastern parts of China bordering on Indo- 

 China. According to the San fu hwafi t'u, it belonged to the southern plants brought 

 to the Fu-li Palace of the Han Emperor Wu after the conquest of Nan Yue (cf. 

 above, p. 262). 



* The fruit of Canarium is a fleshy drupe from three to six cm in length, which 

 contains a hard, triangular, sharp-pointed seed. Within this are found one or more 

 oily kernels. The flesh of the fresh, yellowish-green fruit, like that of the true olive, 

 is somewhat acrid and disagreeable, and requires special treatment before it can 



