422 Sino-Iranica 



When I had established the above identification of the Sanskrit 

 name, it was quite natural for me to lay my hands on Matsumura's 

 "Shokubutsu mei-i" and to look up Cassia fistula under No. 754: 

 it was as surprising as gratifying to find there, "Cassia fistula M ffr W) 

 namban-saikacki." This Japanese name means literally the " ' Gleditsckia 

 japonica {saikali = Chinese tsao-kia-tse) of the Southern Barbarians" 

 (Chinese Nan Fan). The Japanese botanists, accordingly, had suc- 

 ceeded in arriving at the same identification through the description 

 of the plant; while the philological equation with the Sanskrit term 

 escaped them, as evidenced by their adherence to the wrong form 

 a-p'o-lo, sanctioned by the Pen ts'ao kan mu. The case is of methodo- 

 logical interest in showing how botanical and linguistic research may 

 supplement and corroborate each other: the result of the identification 

 is thus beyond doubt; the rejection of a-p'o-lo becomes complete, and 

 the restitution of a-lo-p'o, as handed down in the Cen lei pen ts'ao, 

 ceases to be a mere philological conjecture or emendation, but is raised 

 into the certainty of a fact. 



The Arabs know the fruit of this tree under the names xarnub hindi 

 ("Indian carob") 1 and xiyar lanbar ("cucumber of necklaces," from 

 its long strings of golden flowers). 2 Abu'l Abbas, styled en-Nebati 

 ("the Botanist"), who died at Sevilla in 1239, the teacher of Ibn 

 al-Baitar, who preserved extracts from his lost work Rihla ("The 

 Voyage"), describes Cassia fistula as very common in Egypt, par- 

 ticularly in Alexandria and vicinity, whence the fruit is exported to 

 Syria; 3 it commonly occurs in Bassora also, whence it is exported to 

 the Levant and Irak. He compares the form of the tree to the walnut 

 and the fruit to the carob. The same comparison is made by Isak Ibn 

 Amran, who states in Leclerc's translation, "Dans chacun de ces tubes 

 est renfermee une pulpe noire, sucre\et laxative. Dans chaque com- 

 partiment est un noyau qui a le volume et la forme de la graine de 

 caroubier. La partie employee est la pulpe, a Pexclusion du noyau et du 

 tube." 



The Persians received the fruit from the Arabs on the one hand, and 

 from north-western India on the other. They adopted the Arabic word 

 xiyar-Zanbar* in the form xiyar-Zambar (compare also Armenian xiar- 



1 Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. II, p. 17. 



2 Ibid., p. 64. Also qitta hindi ("Indian cucumber"), ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 62. 



3 Garcia da Orta says that it grows in Cairo, where it was also found by 

 Pierre Belon. In ancient times, however, the tree did not occur in Egypt: Loret, 

 in his Flore pharaonique, is silent about it. It was no doubt brought there by the 

 Arabs from India. 



4 Garcia da Orta spells it hiar-xamber. 



