The Cortander 299 



New Persian kis'niz,kus'niz, and gilnlz, also Siiniz; 1 Kurd ksnis or ktfniS; 

 Turkish kiSnii; Russian kiSnits; Aramaic kusbarta and kusbar (Hebrew 

 gad, Punic yolS, are unconnected), Arabic kozbera or kosher et; Sanskrit 

 kustumburu and kustumbari; Middle and Modern Greek Kowtapas 1 

 and ki<jvvt)t$i. 



According to the Hut k'ian ci, the coriander is called in Turkistan 

 (that is, in Turkl) yun-ma-su f& M ^. 



It is commonly said that the coriander is indigenous to the Mediter- 

 ranean and Caucasian regions (others say southern Europe, the Levant, 

 etc.), but it is shown by the preceding notes that Iran should be included 

 in this definition. I do not mean to say, however, that Iran is the ex- 

 clusive and original home of the plant. Its antiquity in Egypt and in 

 Palestine cannot be called into doubt. It has been traced in tombs of 

 the twenty-second dynasty (960-800 B.C.), 3 and Pliny 4 states that the 

 Egyptian coriander is the best. In Iran the cultivation seems to have 

 been developed to a high degree; and the Iranian product was propa- 

 gated in all directions, — in China, India, anterior Asia, and Russia. 



The Tibetan name for the coriander, u-su, may be connected with 

 or derived from Chinese hu-sui. L. A. Waddell 6 saw the plant culti- 

 vated in a valley near Lhasa. It is also cultivated in Siam. 6 



Coriander was well known in Britain prior to the Norman Con- 

 quest, and was often employed in ancient Welsh and English medicine 

 and cookery. 7 Its Anglo-Saxon name is cellendre, coliandre, going back 

 to Greek koridndron, koriannon. / 



1 Another Persian word is bughunj. According to Steingass (Persian Diction- 

 ary), talki or tdlgi denotes a "wild coriander." 



' The second element of the Arabic, Sanskrit, and Greek words seems to bear 

 some relation to Coptic berSiu, herein (V. Loret, Flore pharaonique, p. 72). In 

 Greece, coriander is still cultivated, but only sparsely, near Theben, Corinth, and 

 Cyparissia (Th. v. Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, p. 41). 



* V. Loret, op. cit., p. 72; F. Woenig, Pflanzen im alten Aegypten, p. 225. 

 4 xx, 20, §82. 



* Lhasa, p. 316. 



* Pallegoix, Description du royaume thai, Vol. I, p. 126. 

 7 FlOckiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia, p. 329. 



