420 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



other ; for instance, in India, the Suncla Isles, Egypt, and 

 even in the West India Islands, where its cultivation is 

 certainly of modern introduction. 1 This is perhaps the 

 reason that no author asserts he has found it in a wild 

 state except Blurae, 2 a trustworthy observer, who men- 

 tions a variety with redder flowers than usual growing 

 in the mountains of Java. This is doubtless an indica- 

 tion of origin, but we need others to establish a proof. I 

 shall seek them in the history of its cultivation. The 

 country where this began should be the ancient habitation 

 of the species, or have had dealings with this ancient 

 habitation. 



That its cultivation dates in Asia from a very early 

 epoch is clear from the diversity of names. Sesame is 

 called in Sanskrit tila, 3 in Malay widjin, in Chinese moa 

 (Rumphius) or chi-ma (Bretschneider), in Japanese 

 koba* The name sesam is common to Greek, Latin, 

 and Arabic, with trifling variations of letter. Hence it 

 might be inferred that its area was very extended, and 

 that the cultivation of the plant was begun independently 

 in several different countries. But we must not attribute 

 too much importance to such an argument. Chinese 

 works seem to show that sesame was not introduced into 

 China before the Christian era. The first certain mention 

 of it occurs in a book of the fifth or sixth century, 

 entitled Tsi-min-yao-chou. 5 Before this there is confu- 

 sion between the name of this plant and that of flax, of 

 which the seed also yields an oil, and which is not very 

 ancient in China. 6 



Theophrastus and Dioscorides say that the Egyptians 

 cultivated a plant called sesame for the oil contained in 

 its seed, and Pliny adds that it came from India. 7 He 



1 Pickering, Chronol. History of Plants, p. 223 ; Rumphius, Herb. 

 Amb., v. p. 204 ; Miquel, Flora Indo-Batava, ii. p. 760 ; Sohweinfurth and 

 Ascherson, Aufzahlung, p. 273 ; Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. Is., p. 458. 



2 Blume, Bijdragen, p. 778. 



Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., edit. 1832, vol. iii. p. 100; Piddington, Index. 

 Thunberg, Fl. Jap., p. 254. 

 Bretschneider, letter of Aug. 23, 1801. 

 Ibid., On Study, etc., p. 16. 



Theophrastus, lib. viii. cap. 1, 5 j Dioscorides, lib. ii. cap. 121 ; 

 Pliny, Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 10 



