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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
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CASSIA PODS AND CAROB 425
Greek xapovrtov, Italian carrobo or carrubo, Spanish algarrobo, French caroube or carouge), is based on the Semitic name. Leleki is another Persian word for the tree, according to SCHLIMMER,' peculiar to Gilan.
The Arabs distinguish three varieties of carob, two of which are named saidaldni and §dbuni.2 There is no doubt that the Arabs who were active in transplanting the tree to the west conveyed it also to Persia. A. de Candolle does not mention the occurrence of the carob in that country. It is pointed out, however, by the Mohammedan writers on Persia. It is mentioned as a cultivation of the province Sä.bûr by Muqaddasi3 and Ya,qût.4 Abu Mansur discusses the medicinal properties of the fruit in his pharmacopoeia; he speaks of a Syrian and a Nabathœan xarnûb.5 SCHLIMMERE remarks that the tree is very common in the forest of Gilan; the pods serve the cows as food, and are made into a sweet and agreeable syrup. No Sanskrit name for the tree exists, and the tree itself did not anciently occur in India.?
A botanical problem remains to be solved in connection with Cassia fistula. DUHALDE8 mentions cassia-trees (Cassia fistula) in the province of Yün-nan toward the kingdom of Ava. "They are pretty tall, and bear long pods; whence 'tis called by the Chinese, Chang-ko-tse-shu,
the tree with long fruit (R X ; its pods are longer than those we
see in Europe, and not composed of two convex shells, like those of ordinary pulse, but are so many hollow pipes, divided by partitions into cells, which contain a pithy substance, in every respect like the cassia in use with us." S. W. WILLIAMS' has the following: "Cassia
fistula, fig hwai hwa ts`in, is the name for the long cylindrical pods
of the senna tree (Cathartocarpus), known to the Chinese as 'eat kwo-tse §u, or tree with long fruit. They are collected in Kwan-si for their pulp and seeds, which are medicinal. The pulp is reddish and sweet, and not so drastic as the American sort; if gathered before the seeds are ripe, its taste is somewhat sharp. It is not exported, to any great
1 Terminologie, p. 120. The pods are also styled tarmi..
L. LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 16.
3 P. SCHWARZ, Iran, p. 32.
9 BARBIER DE MEYNARD, Dictionnaire géographique de la Perse, p. 294.
5 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 59.
6 Terminologie, p. 119.
' The alleged word for the carob, çimbibheda, given in the English-Sanskrit Dictionary of A. BOROOAH, is a modern artificial formation from çimbi or çimba (" pod "). According to WATT, the tree is now almost naturalized in the Salt Range and other parts of the Panjab.
8 Description of the Empire of China, Vol. I, p. 14 (or French ed., Vol. I, p. 26).
9 Chinese Commercial Guide, p. I14. (5th ed., 1863).
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