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
, •~~ï~Y.
348 SING-IRANICA
in India guzangabin, is collected from the tamarisk (Tamarix gallica, var. mannifera Ehrenb.) in the valleys of the Peninsula of Sinai and also in Persia.' In the latter country, the above name is likewise applied to a manna obtained from Astragalus florulentus and A. adscendens in the mountain-districts of Chahar-Mahal and Faraidan, and especially about the town of Khonsar, south-west of Ispahan. The best sorts of this manna, which are termed gaz-alefi or gaz-khonsar (from the province Khonsar), are obtained in August by shaking it from the branches, the little drops finally sticking together and forming a dirty, grayish-white, tough mass. According to SCHLIMMER,2 the shrub on which this manna is formed is common everywhere, without yielding, however, the slightest trace of manna, which is solely obtained in the small province Khonsar or Khunsar. The cause for this phenomenon is sought in the existence there of the Coccus mannifer and in the absence of this insect in other parts of the country. Several Persian physicians of Ispahan, and some European authors, have attributed to the puncture of this insect the production of manna in Khonsar; and Schlimmer recommends transporting and acclimatizing the insect to those regions where Tamarix grows spontaneously.
It has been stated that the earliest allusion to tamarisk-manna is to be found in Herodotus,3 who says in regard to the men of the city Callatebus in Asia Minor that they make honey out of wheat and the fruit of the tamarisk. The case, however, is different; Herodotus does not allude to the exudation of the tree.
STUART4 states that tamarisk-manna is called IL. The
tamarisk belongs to the flora of China, three species of it being known.' The Chinese, as far as I know, make no reference to a manna from any of these species; and the term pointed out by Stuart merely refers to the sap in the interior of the tree, which, according to the Pen ts`ao, is used in the Materia Medica. eel). Tsiao pis a of the Sung period, in
his Twit ci .t,s simply defines c`en nu as " the sap in the wood or
trunk of the tamarisk.'''
1 See particularly D. HOOPER, Tamarisk Manna, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. V, 1909, pp. 31-36.
Terminologie, p. 359.
3 VII, 31.
4 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 259.
6 BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. II, No. 527; Pen ts'ao kcal mu, Ch. 35 B, p. 9.
6 Ch. 76, p. 12.
7 The Turk' name for the tamarisk is yulgun. In Persian it is styled gaz or gazm (Kurd gazo or gezu), the fruit gazmdzak or gazmdzû (gaz basrah, the manna of the tree); further, balangmust, balangmusk, or balanjmusk, and Arabic-Persian kizmdzaj.
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