IIIF Color HighRes
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
418 SING-IRANICA
pao pen ts`ao (written between A.D. 968 and 976), describes the kan-lan, goes on to say that "there is also another kind, known as Po-se kan-lan (` Persian kan-lan'), growing in Yuin 6ou g ',Mi,1 similar to kan-lan in color and form, but different in that the kernel is divided into two sections; it contains a substance like honey, which is soaked in water and eaten." The .an se cou ci2 mentions the plant as a product of San-se cou in Kwan-si. It would be rather tempting to regard this tree as the true olive, as tentatively proposed by STUART,' but I am not ready to subscribe to this theory until it is proved by botanists that the olive-tree really occurs in Kwan-si. Meanwhile it should be pointed out that weighty arguments militate against this supposition. First of all, the Po-se kan-lan is a wild tree: not a word is said to the effect that it is cultivated, still less that it was introduced from Po-se. If it had been introduced from Persia, we should most assuredly find it as a cultivation; and if such an introduction had taken place, why should it be confined to a few localities of Kwan-si? Li gi-6en does not express an
opinion on the question; he merely says that the fait lan, another
variety of Canarium to be found in Kwan-si (unidentified), is a kind of Po-se kan-lan, which proves distinctly that he regards the latter as a wild plant. The Tang authors are silent as to the introduction of the olive; nevertheless, judging from the description in the Yu yan tsa tsu, it may be that the fruit was imported from Persia under the Tang. Maybe the Po-se kan-lan was so christened on account of a certain resemblance of its fruit to the olive; we do not know. There is one specific instance on record that the Po-se of Ma Ci applies to the Malayan Po-se (below, p. 483) ; this may even be the case here, but the connection escapes our knowledge.
S. JULIEN4 asserts that the Chinese author from whom he derives his information describes the olive-tree and its fruit, but adds that the use of it is much restricted. The Chinese name for the tree is not given. Finally, it should be pointed out that Ibn Batûta of the four-
be made palatable. Its most important constituent is fat, which forms nearly one-fourth of the total nutritive material. Cf. W. C. BLASDALE, Description of Some Chinese Vegetable Food Materials, p. 43, with illustration (U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bull. No. 68, 1899). The genus Canarium comprises about eighty species in the tropical regions of the Old World, mostly in Asia (ENGLER, Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. III, pt. 4, p. 240).
1 Name under the Tang dynasty of the present prefecture Nan-nin in Kwan-si Province.
2 Ch. 14, p. 7 b (see above, p. 409).
3 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 89.
4 Industries de l'empire chinois, p. 120.
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