HENNA 



19. It is well known that the leaves of Lawsonia alba or L. inermis, 

 grown all over southern China, are extensively used by women and 

 children as a finger-nail dye, and are therefore styled U kia hwa 3& 

 ^E ("finger-nail flower"). 1 This flower is mentioned in the Sanfu hwan 

 t*u, 2 of unknown authorship and date, as having been transplanted 

 from Nan Yiie (South China) into the Fu-li Palace at the time of the 

 Han Emperor Wu (140-87 B.C.). This is doubtless an anachronism or 

 a subsequent interpolation in the text of that book. The earliest datable 

 reference to this plant is again contained in the Nan fan ts'ao mu Iwan by 

 Ki Han, 3 by whom it is described as a tree from five to six feet in height, 

 with tender and weak branches and leaves like those of the young elm- 

 tree tfe (Ulmus campestris), the flowers being snow-white like ye-si-min 

 and mo-li, but different in odor. As stated above (p. 329), this work goes 

 on to say that these three plants were introduced by Hu people from 

 Ta Ts'in, and cultivated in Kwafi-tun. 4 The question arises again 

 whether this passage was embodied in the original edition. It is some- 

 what suspicious, chiefly for the reason that Ki Han adds the synonyme 

 san-mo, which, as we have seen, in fact relates to jasmine. 



The Pei hu lu, 5 written about A.D. 875 by Twan Kun-lu, contains 

 the following text under the heading &' kia hwa: "The finger-nail flower 

 is fine and white and of intense fragrance. The barbarians HI A now 

 plant it. Its name has not yet been explained. There are, further, the 

 jasmine and the white mo-li. All these were transplanted to China by 

 the Persians (Po-se). This is likewise the case with the p'i-$i-$a Pttt/ 5 

 ?J? (or 'gold coin') flower (Inula chinensis). Originally it was only 

 produced abroad, but in the second year of the period Ta-t'uii :fc 1^1 

 (A.D. 536 of the Liang dynasty) it came to China for the first time 

 (#p 2fc ^dl)." In the Yu yan tsa tsu, G written about fifteen years 

 earlier, we read, "The gold-coin flower 4 il ffi, it is said, was originally 

 produced abroad. In the second year of the period Ta-t'uii of the 



1 Cf. Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. I, 1867, pp. 40-41. STUART, 

 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 232. 



2 Ch. 3, p. 9 b (see above, p. 263). 



3 Ch. B, p. 3 (ed. of Han Wei ts'uh Iw). 



4 Cf. also HIRTH, China and the Roman Orient, p. 268. 

 6 Ch. 3, p. 16 (see above, p. 268). 



6 Ch. 19, p. 10 b. 



334 



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