- BOTANICON SINICUM. 
807. FR Kia; 4 AE Ku t'u (bitter t*u). : 
Kuo P¥o:—A small evergreen tree resembling the Hi 
chi (Gardenia). A beverage is made from the leaves by 
; boiling. Now the earliest gathering is called AE tu, the 
latest 2% miny. Another name for the plant is #R ch‘uan. 
_ The people of 4 shu (Sz‘ch‘uan) call it k*u tu. be 
vote ‘Kvo Phas evidently the tea-plant in view. The 
character # t‘u, which has so many meanings in the Classics. 
may also have been a name for tea, Besides this it is 
proved that the character 3§ ch‘a, now in use to designate 
tea, has arisen out of the similar looking character a tu. 
: See ‘regarding tea and its history, P., XXXII, 22, under 
B ming or # ch‘a, and K.K.F.P., XVUI-XX1. | 
oe Yen Sui-Kv, an author of the 7th century, who com 
_ mented upon the History of the Earlier Han [B.C. 202 
a A.D, 25), notices that the change of the character A de 
aS into 2X ch'a, when applied to the tea-plant, took place it 
7 this period. Thus the name of the city of # B T*u ling hier 
Was then: changed into 4 BE Ch‘a ling hien, nowadays 
| Cha ling chon in Hunan. This is confirmed by the Chinese 
‘Geogr. Dictionary, Li tai t li chi, ete., X, fol. 260. Ch’a hn 
- ‘Mentioned in the Ch‘a king [a treatise on the tea-plan! 
: 8th century | among the tea-producing districts. + 
Character ch‘a for tea was not in general use before # 
publication of this treatise, : | 
- slags Shuo wen explains the character 2% ming by # 
i ua : (buds of the fu, or tea-leaf), The 2% ¥# ming tse 
(ning [or tea] vegetable) is mentioned in the Yen tsz 
‘ux, written some centuries B.C. [Botan. sin. 1, 1092] 
- article of food at the time of Yen Yin, who -_ 
eo atl of Confucius. We read in the Shi 
: th century, see Botan, sin, 1, 729] that Wane 3 es 
father s -in-law of the Emperor Ai v1, in the middle of the 
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