304 Sino-Iranica 



In its appearance it is like lan-lin-tun M §1 4K 1 but greener. When 

 dried and powdered, it tastes like cinnamon and pepper. The root is 

 capable of relieving colds." 2 The Fun H wen kien ki 3 adds that hun-fi 

 came from the Western Countries (Si yii). 



Hun-Vi is a transcription answering to ancient *gwun-de, and 

 corresponds to Middle Persian gandena, New Persian gandand, Hindi 

 gandand, Bengali gundina (Sanskrit mleccha-kanda, "bulb of the bar- 

 barians"), possibly the shallot (Allium ascalonicum; French ichalotte, 

 ciboule) or A. porrum, which occurs in western Asia and Persia, but not 

 in China. 4 



Among the vegetables of India, Huan Tsan 5 mentions W K5 hun-Vo 

 (*hun-da) ts'ai. Julien left this term untranslated; Beal did not know, 

 either, what to make of it, and added in parentheses kandu with an 

 interrogation-mark. Waiters 6 explained it as "kunda (properly the 

 olibanum-tree)." This is absurd, as the question is of a vegetable culti- 

 vated for food, while the olibanum is a wild tree offering no food. More- 

 over, hun cannot answer to kun; and the Sanskrit word is not kunda, 

 but kundu or kunduru. The mode of writing, hun, possibly is intended 

 to allude to a species of Allium. Huan Tsan certainly transcribed a 

 Sanskrit word, but a Sanskrit plant-name of the form kunda or gunda 

 is not known. Perhaps his prototype is related to the Iranian word 

 previously discussed. 



1 The parallel text in the Ts'e fu yuan kwei (Ch. 970, p. 12) writes only lin-tun. 

 This plant is unidentified. 



2 Tan hui yao, Ch. 100, p. 3 b; and Ch. 200, p. 14 b. 



3 Ch. 7, p. 1 b (above, p. 232). 



4 A. de Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants, pp. 68-71; Leclerc, Traite" 

 des simples, Vol. Ill, pp. 69-71; Achundow, Abu Mansur, pp. 113, 258. Other 

 Persian names are tara and kawar. They correspond to Greek xpdaov, Turkish 

 prasa, Arabic karat. The question as to whether the species ascalonicum or porrum 

 should be understood by the Persian term gandand, I have to leave in suspense and 

 to refer to the decision of competent botanists. Schlimmer (Terminologie, p. 21) 

 identifies Persian gandand with Allium porrum; while, according to him, A. ascalon- 

 icum should be musir in Persian. Vullers (Lexicon persico-latinum, Vol. II, p. 1036) 

 translates the word by "porrum." On the other hand, Stuart (Chinese Materia 

 Medica, p. 25), following P. P. Smith, has labelled Chinese hiai $£, an Allium 

 anciently indigenous to China, as A. ascalonicum. If this be correct, the Chinese 

 would certainly have recognized the identity of the foreign hun-t'i with hiai, provided 

 both should represent the same species, ascalonicum. Maybe also the two were 

 identical species, but differentiated by cultivation. 



6 Ta Tan si yii ki, Ch. 2, p. 8 b. 



6 On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. I, p. 178. 



