PEPPER 375
its synonyme Si Luis; at least, it appears certain that the latter term bears no reference to India. Li Si-den gives as localities where the plant is cultivated, "all countries of the Southern Barbarians (Nan Fan), Kiao-èi (Annam), Yûn-nan, and Hai-nan."
Another point of interest is that in the T'an pen ts'ao of Su Kun appears a species called an hu tsiao Ill i % or wild pepper, described as resembling the cultivated species, of black color, with a grain the size of a black bean, acrid taste, great heat, and non-poisonous. This plant-name has been identified with Lindera glauca by A. HENRY,' who says that the fruit is eaten by the peasants of Yi-6'an, Se-è'wan. The same author offers a ye hu-tsiao ("wild pepper"), being Zanthoxylum setosum.
Piper longum or Chavica roxburghii, Chinese V A or 40it pi-po, *pit-pat(pal), from Sanskrit pippali, is likewise attributed to Sasanian Persia.' This pepper must have been also imported into Iran from India, for it is a native of the hotter parts of India from Nepal eastward to Assam, the Khasia hills and Bengal, westward to Bombay, and southward to Travancore, Ceylon, and Malacca.' It is therefore surprising to read in the Pen ts'ao of the T'ang that pi-po grows in the country Po-se: this cannot be Persia, but refers solely to the Malayan Po-se. For the rest, the Chinese were very well aware of the Indian origin of the plant, as particularly shown by the adoption of the Sanskrit name. It is first mentioned in the Nan fan ts'ao mu &wan, unless it be there one of the interpolations in which this work abounds, but it is mixed up with the betel-pepper (Chavica betel).
I Chinese Names of Plants, No. 45.
2 eou Su, Ch. 5o, p. 6.
3 WATT, Commercial Products of India, p. 891.
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