SUGAR BEET AND LETTUCE 



37. In the preceding notes we observed that the name for a species 

 of Beta was transferred to the spinach in India and still serves in China 

 as designation for this vegetable. We have also a Sino-Iranian name 

 for a Beta, - H, kun-fa, *gwun-d'ar, which belonged to the choice 

 vegetables of the country ^ flft Mo-lu, *Mar-luk, in Arabia. 1 The 

 Cen su wen H V& 3&C 2 says that it is now erroneously called ken ta ts'ai 

 fi Jt 3 or ta ken ts'ai, which is identical with tien ts'ai "$$ 3fc (" sweet 

 vegetable"). STUART"* gives the latter name together with jfl j| kiin-t*a, 

 identifying it with Beta vulgaris, the white sugar beet, which he says 

 grows in China. Stuart, however, is mistaken in saying that this plant 

 is not mentioned in the Pen ts'ao. It is noted both in the Cen lei pen 

 ts*ao* and the Pen ts'ao kan muf the latter giving also the term kun-t*a, 

 which is lacking in the former work. Li Si-Sen observes with reference 

 to this term that its meaning is unexplained, a comment which usually 

 betrays the foreign character of the word, but he fails to state the 

 source from which he derived it. There is no doubt that this kiln-fa 

 is merely a graphic variant of the above ||. The writing J? is as 

 early as the T'ang period, and occurs in the Yu yan tsa tsuf where the 

 leaves of the yu tien ts'ao V& Ifi ^ ("herb with oily spots") are com- 

 pared to those of the kun-t'a. 1 A description of the kiin-t'a is not con- 

 tained in that work, but from this incidental reference it must be 

 inferred that the plant was well known in the latter half of the ninth 

 century. 



Beta vulgaris is called in New Persian tugundur or Zegonder, and 

 is mentioned by Abu Mansur. 8 The corresponding Arabic word is 

 silk* The Chinese transcription made in the T'ang period is apparently 

 based on a Middle-Persian form of the type *gundar or *gundur. Beta 

 vulgaris is a Mediterranean and West-Asiatic plant grown as far as the 



1 T'ai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 16 b. 



2 Ch. 12, p. 3. This work was published in 1884 by Ho Yi-hin %$ f& ff . 

 1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 68. 



4 Ch. 28, p. 9. 



5 Ch. 27, p. i b. Cf. also Yamato honzo, Ch. 5, p. 26. 



6 Ch. 9, p. 9 b. 



7 "On each leaf there are black spots opposite one another." 



8 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 81. 



9 LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. II, p. 274. 



399 



