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THE WALNUT   27!

varieties (p'ien hu t`ao, gan hu t`ao, man hu t'ao, to hu t'ao), combined with the fact that two authors describe both the varieties ptien and fan, raise the question whether this nomenclature does not refer to different plants, and whether, aside from the wild walnut, other nuts may not also be included in this group. In this respect it is of interest to note that the hickory, recently discovered in Ce-kian by F. N. MEYER, and determined by SARGENT' under the name Carya cathayensis, is said by Meyer to be called shah-gho-to in the colloquial language; and this evidently is identical with our . an hu t`ao. This certainly does not mean that this term refers exclusively to the hickory, but only that locally the hickory falls also within the category of an hu t`ao. The distribution of the hickory over China is not yet known, and the descriptions we have of .an hu t`ao do not refer to Ce-kian.

In the Pan . an ci   fjI ;4 , a description of the Pan mountains,'
the term . an ho t`ao is given as a synonyme for the bark of Catalpa bungei (ts'iu p`iC A), which is gathered on this mountain for medicinal purposes,— presumably because the structure of this bark bears some superficial resemblance to that of a walnut. Wild walnuts, further, are mentioned as growing on Mount Si fu dun P4 X g I.I1,

forming part of the Ma-ku Mountains a    al situated in Fu-cou

114 J'H in the prefecture of Kien-è'an   > , Kian-si Province.'

While the cultivated walnut was known in China during the fourth century under the Tsin dynasty, the wild species indigenous to southern China was brought to the attention of scholars only several centuries later, toward the close of the Tang period. This case furnishes an excellent object-lesson, in that it reveals the fallacies to which botanists and others are only too frequently subject in drawing conclusions from mere botanical evidence as to cultivated plants. The favorite argumentation is, that if, in a certain region, a wild and a corresponding cultivated species co-exist, the cultivated species is simply supposed to have been derived from the wild congener. This is a deceptive conclusion. The walnut (as well as the vine) of China offers a

1 Plantae Wilsonianae, Vol. III, p. 187.

2 Ch. 15, p. 2 b, of the edition published in 1755 by order of Kien-lun. The P'an an is situated three or four days' journey east of Peking, in the province of the summit being crowned by an interesting Buddhist temple, and there being an imperial travelling-station at its foot. It was visited by me in September, 1901. F. N. MEYER (Agricultural Explorations in the Orchards of China, p. 52) says that in the Pangshan district east of Peking one may still find a few specimens of the real wild walnut growing in ravines among large bowlders in the mountains.

3 Ma-ku . an ci (Ch. 3, p. 6 b), written by members of the family Hwan 1, and

published in 1866 by the Tun t'ien Su wu ' n X   R . These mountains contain

thirty-six caves dedicated to the Taoist goddess Ma-ku.