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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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, , kün-t`a, *gwun-d`ar, which belonged to the choice
vegetables of the country 4 Mo-lu, *Mar-luk, in Arabia.' The
een su wen '~ 3`C2 says that it is now erroneously called ken to ts'ai
~C or to ken ts`ai, which is identical with tien ts`ai if (" sweet
vegetable "). STUART3 gives the latter name together with kün-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'ao4 and the Pen ts'ao kan mu,5 the latter giving also the term kün-t`a, which is lacking in the former work. Li Si-Cen 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 kün-t`a
is merély a graphic variant of the above 4. The writing is as
early as the Tang period, and occurs in the Yu yan tsa tsu,6 where the
leaves of the yu tien ts'ao n elk (" herb with oily spots ") are com-
pared to those of the kün-t`a.' A description of the kün-t`a is not contained 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 &ugundur or &gonder, and is mentioned by Abu Mansur.' The corresponding Arabic word is silk.' The Chinese transcription made in the Tang 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 raj p `in hwan yü ki, Ch. 186, p. 16 b.
2 Ch. 12, p. 3. This work was published in 1884 by Ho Chinese Materia Medica, p. 68.
4 Ch. 28, p. 9.
5 Ch. 27, p. i b. Cf. also Yamato honzô, 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. 8i.
9 LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 274.
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