4i 8 Sino-Iranica 



pao pen is'ao (written between a.d. 968 and 976), describes the kan-lan, 

 goes on to say that "there is also another kind, known as Pose kan-lan 

 ('Persian kan-lan'), growing in Yun cou I 'M, 1 similar to kan-lan in 

 color and form, but different in that the kernel is divided into two sec- 

 tions; it contains a substance like honey, which is soaked in water and 

 eaten." The San se lou li % mentions the plant as a product of Sah-se 

 cou in Kwah-si. It would be rather tempting to regard this tree as the 

 true olive, as tentatively proposed by Stuart; 3 but I am not ready to 

 subscribe to this theory until it is proved by botanists that the olive- 

 tree really occurs in Kwah-si. Meanwhile it should be pointed out that 

 weighty arguments militate against this supposition. First of all, the 

 Pose kan-lan is a wild tree: not a word is said to the effect that it is 

 cultivated, still less that it was introduced from Po-se. If it had been 

 introduced from Persia, we should most assuredly find it as a culti- 

 vation; and if such an introduction had taken place, why should it be 

 confined to a few localities of Kwah-si? Li Si-cen does not express an 

 opinion on the question; he merely says that the Jan ~i) Ian, another 

 variety of Canarium to be found in Kwah-si (unidentified), is a kind 

 of Pose kan-lan, which proves distinctly that he regards the latter 

 as a wild plant. The T'ang authors are silent as to the introduction of 

 the olive; nevertheless, judging from the description in the Yu yan tsa 

 tsu, it may be that the fruit was imported from Persia under the T'ang. 

 Maybe the Pose kan-lan was so christened on account of a certain 

 resemblance of its fruit to the olive; we do not know. There is one 

 specific instance on record that the Po-se of Ma Ci applies to the 

 Malayan Po-se (below, p. 483) ; this may even be the case here, but the 

 connection escapes our knowledge. 



S. Julien 4 asserts that the Chinese author from whom he derives 

 his information describes the olive-tree and its fruit, but adds that 

 the use of it is much restricted. The Chinese name for the tree is not 

 given. Finally, it should be pointed out that Ibn Batuta of the four- 

 be made palatable. Its most important constituent is fat, which forms nearly one- 

 fourth of the total nutritive material. Cf. W. C. Blasdale, Description of Some 

 Chinese Vegetable Food Materials, p. 43, with illustration (U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Bull. No. 68, 1899). The genus Canarium comprises about eighty 

 species in the tropical regions of the Old World, mostly in Asia (Engler, Pflan- 

 zenfamilien, Vol. Ill, pt. 4, p. 240). 



1 Name under the T'ang dynasty of the present prefecture Nan-nih in Kwah-si 

 Province. 



2 Ch. 14, p. 7 b (see above, p. 409). 



3 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 89. 



4 Industries de l'empire chinois, p. 120. 



