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0095 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 95 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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THE WALNUT   269

Hu M people gather these nuts in abundance, and send them to the Chinese officials, designating them as curiosities a A. As to their shape, they are thin and pointed; the head is slanting like a sparrow's beak. If broken and eaten, the kernel has a bitter taste resembling that

of the pine-seeds of Sin-ra   .1 Being hot by nature, they are
employed as medicine, and do not differ from the kernels of northern China."

The Pei hu lu2 likewise mentions the same variety of glandular wal-

nut (p`ien ho-ttao) as growing in the country Can-pei   -, shaped
like the crescent of the moon, gathered and eaten by the Po-se,3 having a very fine fragrance, stronger than the peach-kernels of China, but of the same effect in the healing of disease.

The species here described may be identical with Juglans cathayensis, called the Chinese butternut, usually a bush, but in moist woods forming a tree from twelve to fifteen metres tall; but I do not know that this plant occurs in any Malayan region. With reference to Can-pi, however, it may be identical with the fruit of Canarium commune (family Burseraceae), called in Malayan kanari, in Javanese kenari. J. CRAWFURD,4 who was not yet able to identify this tree, offers the following remarks: " Of all the productions of the Archipelago the one which yields the finest edible oil is the kanari. This is a large handsome tree, which yields a nut of an oblong shape nearly of the size of a walnut. The kernel is as delicate as that of a filbert, and abounds in oil. This

Can-pi is a Malayan territory probably to be located on Sumatra. For this reason

I am inclined to think that Zan-pi   is identical with Can-pei   r; that is,
Jambi, the capital of eastern Sumatra (HIRTH and ROCKHILL, Chau Ju-kua, pp. 65, 66; see further GROENEVELDT, Notes on the Malay Archipelago, pp. 188, 196; and GERINI, Researches on Ptolemy's Geography, p. 565; Lin wai tai ta, Ch. 2, p. 12).

From a phonetic point of view, however, the transcription E   , made in the
Tang period, represents the ancient sounds *ban-pit, and would presuppose an original of the form *6ambit, 6ambir, or jambir, whereas _W is without a final con-

sonant. The country Can-pei is first mentioned under the year A.D. 852 (   J sixth

year), when Wu-sie-ho   $ - i and six men from there came to the Chinese Court

with a tribute of local products (T'ai p'in hwan yü ki, Ch. 177, p. 15 b). A second embassy is on record in 871 (PELLIOT, Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. IV, p. 347).

1 Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc. (J. MATSUMURA, Shokubutsu mei-i, pp. 266-267, ed. 1915), in Japanese côsen-matsu ("Korean pine ") ; see also STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 333. Sin-ra (Japanese gin-ra, iraki) is the name of the ancient kingdom of Silla, in the northern part of Korea.

2 Ch. 3, p. 5 (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan).

3 a 4W certainly is here not Persia, for the Pei hu lu deals with the products of Kwan-tun, Annam, and the countries south of China (PELLIOT, Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. IX, p. 223). See below, p. 468. The Pei hu lu has presumably served as the source for the text of the Lin Piao lu i, quoted above.

4 History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. I, p. 383.