AROMATICS PUTCHUCK 463 



no botanical value, being merely a commercial label covering different 

 roots from most diverse regions. If Cao Zu-kwa compares the putchuck- 

 yielding plant with Luffa cylindrica, a Cucurbitacea of southern China, 

 with which he compares also the cardamom, it is perfectly clear that he 

 does not visualize the genuine costus-root of Saussurea lappa, a tall, 

 stout herb, indigenous to the moist, open slopes surrounding the valley 

 of Kashmir, at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet. If he further 

 states that the product is found in Hadramaut and on the Somali coast, 

 it is, in my opinion, not logical to reject this as " wrong," for a product 

 of the name mu hian was certainly known in the China of his time 

 from that region. And why not? Also Dioscorides mentions an Arabian 

 costus, which is white and odoriferous and of the best quality; besides, 

 he has an Indian costus, black and smooth, and a Syrian variety of wax 

 color, dusky, and of strong odor. It is obvious that these three articles 

 correspond to the roots of three distinct species, which have certain 

 properties in common; and it has justly been doubted that the modern 

 costus is the same thing as that of the ancients. The Arabs have 

 adopted the nomenclature of Dioscorides. 1 The Sheikh Daud dis- 

 tinguishes an Indian species, white; a black one from China; and a red, 

 heavy one, adding that it is said to be a tree of the kind of Agallockum. 

 Nearly everywhere in Asia have been found aromatic roots which in 

 one way or another correspond to the properties of the Indian kustha. 

 Thus in Tibet and Mongolia the latter is adjusted with the genus Inula; 

 and the Tibetan word ru-rta, originally referring to an Inula, was 

 adopted by the Buddhist translators as a rendering of Sanskrit kustha. 2 

 In the same manner, the Chinese term mu hian formerly denoted an 

 indigenous plant of Yun-nan, which, according to the ancient work 

 Pie lu, grew in the mountain-valleys of Yun-6'afi. 3 The correctness of 

 this tradition is confirmed by the Man $u, which mentions a mountain- 

 range, three days' journey south of Yun-6'an, by name Ts'iii-mu-hiafi 

 ("Dark-Wood Aromatic"), and owing its name to the great abundance 

 of this root. 4 The Man $u, further, extends its occurrence to the country 



1 LECLERC, Trait6 des simples, Vol. Ill, pp. 85-86. 



2 H. LAUFER, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der tibetischen Medicin, p. 61. 



3 Also Wu K'i-tsun (Ci wu min Si t'u k'ao, Ch. 25, p. n) observes correctly that 

 this species is not the putchuck coming from the foreign barbarians. His three 

 illustrations, putchuck from Hai-Sou in Kian-su, from Kwan-tun, and from C'u-ou 

 in Nan-hwi, are reproduced from the T'u su tsi I' en (XX, Ch. 117), and represent 

 three distinct plants. 



4 The Tien hai yu hen li (Ch. 3, p. i; see above, p. 228) states that mu hian is 

 produced in the native district C'6-li !$L M 3, formerly called C'an-li |g Jt, 

 of Yun-nan. 



