The Malayan Po-Se — Semecarpus, Psoralea 483 



say expressly that it dyes hair and mustache black. 1 It gives to cotton 

 fabrics a black color, which is said to be insoluble in water, but soluble 

 in alcohol. The juice of the pericarp is mixed with lime water as a 

 mordant before it is used to mark cloth. In some parts of Bengal the 

 fruits are regularly used as a dye for cotton cloths. 2 The fleshy cups on 

 which the fruit rests, roasted in ashes, and the kernels of the nuts, are 

 eaten as food. They are supposed to stimulate the mental powers, 

 especially the memory. The acrid juice of the pericarp is a powerful 

 vesicant, and the fruit is employed medicinally. 



In regard to the Persian-Arabic baladur, Ibn al-Baitar states express- 

 ly that this is an Indian word, 5 and there is no doubt that it is derived 

 from Sanskrit bhallataka. The term is also given by Abu Mansur, who 

 discusses the application of the remedy. 4 The main point in this con- 

 nection is that p'o-lo-te is a typical Indian plant, and that the Po-se of 

 the above Chinese text cannot refer to Persia. Since the tree occurs in 

 the Malayan area, however, it is reasonable to conclude that again the 

 Malayan Po-se is intended. The case is analogous to the preceding 

 one, and the Malayan Po-se were the mediators. At any rate, the 

 transmission to China of an Indian product with a Sanskrit name by 

 way of the Malayan Po-se is far more probable than by way of Persia. 

 I am also led to the general conclusion that almost all Po-se products 

 mentioned in the Hat yao pen ts'ao of Li Sun have reference to the 

 Malayan Po-se exclusively. 



67. A drug, by the name ■fif # flit pu-ku-U (*bu-kut-tsi), identified 

 with Psoralea corylifolia, is first distinctly mentioned by Ma Ci $1 JS, 

 collaborator in the K'ai pao pen ts'ao (a.d. 968-976) of the Sung period, 

 as growing in all districts of Lih-nan (Kwan-tuh) and K wan-si, and 

 in the country Po-se. According to Ta Min ^C 9§, author of the Zi hwa 

 cu kia pen ts'ao ^£f ft ^ ^ ^, published about a.d. 970, the drug 

 would have been mentioned in the work Nan lou ki by Sii Piao 

 (prior to the fifth century) , 5 who determined it as 1!$ M ^F hu kiu-tse, 

 the "Allium odorum of the Hu." This, however, is plainly an anachro- 

 nism, as neither the plant, nor the drug yielded by it, is mentioned by 

 any T'ang writers, and for the first time looms up in the pharmacopoeia 

 of the Sung. Su Sun, in his T'u kin pen ts'ao, observes that the plant 

 now occurs abundantly on the mountain-slopes of southern China, 



1 Gen lei pen ts'ao, Ch. 5, p. 14 b. 



2 Cf. Watt, Dictionary, Vol. VI, pt. 2, p. 498. 



3 Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. I, pp. 162, 265. 



4 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 30. 



5 See above, p. 247. 



