382 SING-IRANICA
"Man-tsin occurs [in India] in sufficient quantity and in two varieties, one with white, the other with black seeds. In Chinese translation it is
called mustard (kie-tse ). As in all countries, oil is pressed from it
for culinary purposes. When eating it as a vegetable, I found it not very different from the man-tsin of China; but as regards the root, which is rather tough, it is not identical with our man-tsin. The seeds are coarse, and again bear no relation to mustard-seeds. They are like those of Hovenia dulcis ca-ka it 4), transformed in their shape in consequence of the soil."'
1 This sentence is entirely misunderstood by J. TAKAKUSU in his translation of Yi Tsin's work (p. 44), where we read, "The change in the growth of this plant is considered to be something like the change of an orange-tree into a bramble when
brought north of the Yangtse River." The text has: jt TA! iÿ A 4 30.
There is nothing here about an orange or a bramble or the Yangtse. The character tA, is erroneously used for -, as is still the case in southern China (see STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 209), and t,p g is a well-known botanical name for a rhamnaceous tree (not an orange), Hovenia dulcis. "Change of an orange-tree into a bramble" is nonsense in itself.
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