Garden Pea and Broad Bean 307 



plants. One is termed hui-hui tou ("Mohammedan bean"), first men- 

 tioned in the Kiu hwan pen ts'ao of the fourteenth century, called also 

 na-ho tou ffi & JUL, the bean being roasted and eaten. The other, 

 named hu tou, is identified with the wild hu tou of C'en Ts'ah-k'i; and 

 Wu K'i-tsun, author of the Ci wu min H t'u k'ao, adds the remark, 

 "What is now called hu tou grows wild, and is not the hu tou [that is, 

 the pea] of ancient times." 



14. On the other hand, the term hu tou t® S. refers also to Faba 

 sativa (F. vulgaris, the vetch or common bean), according to Bret- 

 schneider, 1 "one of the cultivated plants introduced from western 

 Asia into China, in the second century B.C., by the famous general 

 Chang K'ien." This is an anachronism and a wild statement, which he 

 has not even supported by any Chinese text. 2 The history of the species 

 in China is lost, or was never recorded. The supposition that it was 

 introduced from Iran is probable. It is mentioned under the name 

 pag (gavirs) in the Bundahisn as the chief of small-seeded grains.* 

 Abu Mansur has it under the Persian name baqild or bdqla.* Its culti- 

 vation in Egypt is of ancient date. 6 



15. Ts'an tou MIL ("silkworm bean," so called because in its 

 shape it resembles an old silkworm), Japanese sorantame, the kidney- 

 bean or horse-bean (Vicia faba), is also erroneously counted by Bret- 

 schneider 8 among the Can-K'ien plants, without any evidence being 

 produced. It is likewise called hu tou tft &,, but no historical documents 

 touching on the introduction of this species are on record. It is not 

 mentioned in T'ang or Sung literature, and seems to have been intro- 

 duced not earlier than the Yuan period (1260-1367). It is spoken of 

 in the Nun Su §k # ("Book on Agriculture") of Wan Ceri 3: H of 

 that period, and in the Kiu hwan pen ts'ao $C %L ^ P of the early 



1 Bot. Sin., pt. II, No. 29. 



• The only text to this effect that I know of is the Pen ts'ao kin, quoted in the 

 Pat p'in yii Ian (Ch. 841, p. 6 b), which ascribes to Can K'ien the introduction of 

 sesame and hu tou; but which species is meant (Pisum sativum, Faba sativa, or 

 Vicia faba) cannot be guessed. The work in question certainly is not the Pen ts'ao 

 kin of Sen-nun, but it must have existed prior to a.d. 983, the date of the publication 

 of the Pet p'in yii Ian. 



• West, Pahlavi Texts, Vol. I, p. 90. 

 4 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 20. 



' V. Loret, Flore pharaonique, p. 94. 



• Chinese Recorder, 1 871, p. 221 (thus again reiterated by de Candolle, Origin 

 of Cultivated Plants, p. 318). The Kwan k'iin fan p'u (Ch. 4, p. 12 b) refers the 

 above text from the T'ai p'in yii Ian to this species, but also to the pea. This con- 

 fusion is hopeless. 



