284 SlNO-lRANICA 



ddna ("grain, berry, stone of a fruit, seed of grain or fruit "), ddngu 

 ("kind of grain"), Sina danu ("pomegranate"); 1 Sanskrit dhanika, 

 dhanyaka, or dhamyaka ("coriander"; properly "grains"). The no- 

 tion conveyed by this series is the same as that underlying Latin 

 granatum, from granum ("grain"); cf. Anglo-Saxon cornappel and 

 English pomegranate ("apple made up of grains"). 



(3) 3c ^J J nan si liu or 35 t Si liu. This transcription is generally 

 taken in the sense "the plant liu of the countries Nan and Si, or of the 

 country Nan-i." This view is expressed in the Po wu i, which, as 

 stated, also refers to the Can-K'ien legend, and to the term t'u-lin, 

 and continues that this was the seed of the liu of the countries Nan 

 and Si; hence, on the return of Can K'ien to China, the name nan-si-liu 

 was adopted. 2 Bretschneider intimates that Nan and Si were little 

 realms dependent on K'an at the time of the Han. Under the T'ang, 

 the name Nan referred to Bukhara, and Si to TaSKend; but it is hardly 

 credible that these two geographical names (one does not see for what 

 reason) should have been combined into one, in order to designate 

 the place of provenience of the pomegranate. It is preferable to assume 

 that $ ^5 nan $i, *an-sek, an-sak, ar-sak, represents a single name 

 and answers to Arsak, the name of the Parthian dynasty, being on a 

 par with 3c U. nan-si, *Ar-sik, and jc IS nan-si, *Ar-sai. In fact, 

 :: 35 is the best possible of these transcriptions. We should expect, 

 of course, to receive from the Chinese a specific and interesting story as 

 to how and when this curious name, which is unique in their botanical 

 nomenclature, was transmitted; 8 but nothing of the kind appears to 

 be on record, or the record, if it existed, seems to have been lost. It 

 is manifest that also the plant-name liu (*riu, r'u) presents the tran- 

 scription of an Iranian word, and that the name in its entirety was 

 adopted by the Chinese from an Iranian community outside of Parthia, 

 which had received the tree or shrub from a Parthian region, and there- 

 fore styled it "Parthian pomegranate." It is not likely that the tree 

 was transplanted to China directly from Parthia; we have to assume 

 rather that the transplantation was a gradual process, in which the 



1 W. LEITNER, Races and Languages of Dardistan, p. 17. 



2 It is not correct, as asserted by BRETSCHNEIDER (Chinese Recorder, 1871, 

 p. 222), to say that this definition emanates from Li Si-gen, who, in fact, quotes 

 only the Po wu i, and presents no definition of his own except that the word liu 

 means ^ liu ("goitre"); this, of course, is not to be taken seriously. In Jehol, a 

 variety of pomegranate is styled hai $$ liu (O. FRANKE, Beschreibung des Jehol- 

 Gebietes, p. 75); this means literally, "liu from the sea," and signifies as much as 

 "foreign liu." 



3 Cf . nan-si hian ^C JS ^ ("Parthian incense") as designation for styrax 

 benzoin (p. 464). 



