FENUGREEK 447 



is Sanbalid, Sanbalile in Ispahan, and Samliz in Shiraz, which appears 

 in India as Samti. As is well known, the plant occurs wild in Kashmir, 

 the Panjab, and in the upper Gangetic plain, and is cultivated in many 

 parts of India, particularly in the higher inland provinces. The Sanskrit 

 term is methi, methika, or meihim. 1 In Greek it is /SouKepas ("ox-horn"), 2 

 Middle Greek -xpvKirev (from the Arabic), Neo-Greek rrjXu; Latin 

 foenum graecum.* According to A. DE CANDOLLE, 4 the species is wild 

 (besides the Panjab and Kashmir) in the deserts of Mesopotamia and 

 of Persia, and in Asia Minor. JOHN FRYER 5 enumerates it among the 

 products of Persia. 6 



Another West- Asiatic plant introduced by the Arabs into China under the 

 Sung is ff ^ jH ya-pu-lu, first mentioned by Cou Mi ID tffi (1230-1320) as a 

 poisonous plant growing several thousand li west from the countries of the Moham- 

 medans (Kwei sin tsa Si, sil tsi A, p. 38, ed. of Pai hai; and i ya fan tsa Z'ao, Ch. A, 

 p. 40 b, ed. of Yue ya fan ts'un $u). This name is based on Arabic yabruh or abruh 

 (Persian jabruh), the mandragora or mandrake. This subject has been discussed by 

 me in detail in a monograph "La Mandragore" (in French), T'oung Pao, 1917, 

 pp. 1-30. 



des simples, Vol. I, p. 443. SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 547) remarks, "L'infusion 

 de la semence est un remede favori des me"decins indigenes dans les blennorhagies 

 urethriques chroniques." 



1 It occurs, for instance, as a condiment in an Indian tale of King Vikramaditya 

 (A. WEBER, Abh. Berl. Akad., 1877, p. 67). 



2 Hippocrates; Theophrastus, Hist, plant., IV. rv, 10; or rfjXts: ibid., III. xvi, 

 2; Dioscorides, II, 124. 



3 Pliny, xxiv, 120. 



4 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 112. 



5 New Account of East India and Persia, Vol. II, p. 311. 



6 For further information see FLUCKIGER and H ANBURY, Pharmacographia, 

 p. 172. 



