GALBANUM 365 



sent from Bombay to China, and SxuART 1 regards this as entirely 

 probable; but this is merely a supposition unsupported by any tangible 

 data: no modern name is known under which the article might come. 

 The three names given for galbanum in the English-Chinese Standard 

 Dictionary are all wrong: the first, a-yii, refers to asafcetida (see above, 

 p. 361) ; 2 the second, $8, denotes Liquidambar orientalis; and the third, 

 pai sun hian ("white pine aromatic "), relates to Pinus bungeana. 

 The Pen ts'ao kanmu 3 has the notice on p'i-ts'i as an appendix to "manna." 

 Li Si-6en, accordingly, did not know the nature of the product. He is 

 content to cite the text of the Yu yan tsa tsu and to define the medical 

 properties of the substance after C'en Ts'an-k'i of the T'ang. Only 

 under the T'ang was galbanum known in China. 



The trees from which the product is obtained are usually identified 

 with Ferula galbaniflua and F. rubricaulis or erubescens, both natives 

 of Persia. The Syrian product used by the Hebrews and the ancients 

 was apparently derived from a different though kindred species. 

 F. rubricaulis, said by the botanist Buhse to be called in Persian khas- 

 suih* is diffused all over northern Persia and in the Daena Mountains 

 in the southern part of the country; it is frequent in the Demawend and 

 on the slopes of the Alwend near Hamadan. 5 No incisions are made 

 in the plant: the sap flowing out of the lower part of the stalks and from 

 the base of the leaves is simply collected. The gum is amber-yellow, 

 of not disagreeable, strongly aromatic odor, and soon softens between 

 the fingers. Its taste is slightly bitter. Only in the vicinity of Hamadan, 

 where the plant is exuberant, has the collecting of galbanum developed 

 into an industry. 



SCHLIMMER* distinguishes two kinds, a brown and a white-yel- 

 lowish galbanum. The former (Persian barzed or barije), the product of 

 Ferula galbaniflua, is found near De Gerdon in the mountains Sa-ute- 

 polagh between Teheran and Gezwin, in the valleys of Lars (Elburs), 

 Khereghan, and Sawe, where the villagers gather it under the name 

 balubu. The latter kind is the product of Dorema anchezi Boiss., en- 



1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 181. 



2 This is the name given' for galbanum by F. P. SMITH (Contributions towards 

 the Materia Medica, p. 100), but it is mere guesswork. 



3 Ch. 33, p. 6. 



4 Evidently identical with what WATT (Commercial Products of India, p. 535) 

 writes khassnib, explaining it as a kind of galbanum from Shlraz. LOEW (Aram. 

 Pflanzennamen, p. 163) makes kassnih of this word. The word intended is apparently 

 the kasni mentioned above (p. 361). 



5 BORSZCZOW, op. cit., p. 35. 



6 Terminologie, p. 295. 



